HX641 05547 
R21 0.C43  .H99        Early  medical  Chicag 


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le3   James  Kevins 


Early  Medical  Chicago 


1?2/b,ef3 


jm 


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Early  Medical  Cmh(h 


a 


James  Nevins  .Hyde,  A.M.,  M.D., 


£<tf<=  Passed  ■  AMstant    SHr.ge6n   U.  S.  2R,  Lecturer   Mush     Wei&cal    College,  and   Clinical 
Instructor   GJ&cago  Mcllcal  College,  SdvtTi    'SitU  Dispensary. 


REPRINTED    FROM    TEE    CHICAGO    MEDICAL    JOURNAL   AND    EXAMINER, 


CHICAGO  : 

"W.     B.     KEEN,     COOKE     &     CO 
1876. 


—  TO  — 


£l)e  itUmoru  of 

THREE  MEDICAL  STUDENTS, 

1st  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons.  Faikfield.  Hebkimer 
County.  N.  Y..  1832-34  :  — 

ALEXANDER    FISHER,  the  eldest, 

now.  Emertfus  Professor  of  Sargtry.  Woman-s  Hospital  Medical   College. 

DANIEL     BRAINARD,    next    in  years, 
afterward,  .first  Professor  of  Surgery.  Push  Medical  College,     i  Obiit  Oct.  10.  1866). 

and  NATHAN     SMITH     DAVIS,    the    youngest, 
now,  Professor  of  the  Principles  and  Practice  of  Medicine.  Chicago  Medical  UoUege— 

Honorable  rivals  in  the  profession  which  they  entered  by  the  same  portal : 

Destined,  each,  in  the  Providence  of  God.  to  become  identified  with  the  foundation  of  a 
separate  Medical  School  in  Chicago, 

And  to  achieve  an  unblemished  and  successful  career  in  Medicine, 
THESE    PAGES  ARE  RESPECTFULLY 

Snsaibeft. 


/laUsL4^frotsC£ \ 


EARLY  MEDICAL  CHICAGO: 


HISTORICAL   SKETCH 


First  Practitioners  of  Medicine  in   the  City. 


By   JAMES    NEVINS    HYDE,  A.M.,  M.D. 


To  assert  to-day  that  the  age  of  men  and  cities  should 
be  estimated,  rather  by  the  march  of  events  than  by  the 
lapse  of  time,  is  to  merely  utter  a  truism.  There  are 
tapestries  now  hanging  in  the  palaces  of  Venice,  that 
have  been  undisturbed  since  the  Venetian  Dandolo  car- 
ried the  walls  of  Constantinople.  How  little  of  change 
has  each  succeeding  half  century  wrought  in  the  apart- 
ments which  now  display  the  faded  furnishings  of  a  long- 
departed  Doge  !  And  yet,  in  the  purview  of  history, 
how  venerable  was  the  royal  prophet  of  Israel  in  the 
Assyrian  Court,  who  had  exchanged  the  captivity  of 
his  childhood  for  the  government  of  a  province,  and  sur- 
vived the  rise  and  fall  of  three  dynasties,  when  Cyrus 
entered  the  Babylonian  capital  by  the  bed  of  the 
Euphrates  ! 

By  the  transit  of  time  merely,  Chicago  may  be  counted 
as  yet  young,  but  she  is  really  old  in  the  measure  of  her 
experience.  Dismissing  for  the  moment  the  charge  which 
is  generally,   and  possibly  justly,   brought  against  her 


2 

citizens,  that  they  are  prone  to  exaggerate  the  rapidity 
of  her  growth  and  the  extent  of  her  development,  these- 
are  yet  facts  which  challenge  investigation.  Here  is  a 
city  of  nearly  half  a  million  of  inhabitants,  where  fifty 
years  ago  was  a  morass,  untenanted  and  almost  unten- 
antable. The  great  concentration  of  human  energies* 
requisite  to  effect  such  a  rapid  metamorphosis,  is  difficult 
of  realization.  No  better  illustration  of  the  rapidity  of 
succession  of  events  within  this  limited  period  can  be 
found,  than  in  the  fact  that  an  experience  of  the  early 
days  of  Chicago  has  come  to  be  regarded  with  much  of 
the  veneration  that  attaches  to  a  remote  antiquity.  And 
yet  the  child  who  first  saw  the  light  in  the  infancy  of  the 
city,  should  to-day  be  only  in  the  meridian  of  life. 

I  purpose  to  present  a  brief  sketch  of  the  pioneers  in 
this  field — the  predecessors  of  the  large  body  of  medical 
men  who  are  now  engaged  in  the  practice  of  their  pro- 
fession in  this  great  metropolis.  '  The  paucity  and  imper- 
fection of  these  details  are  largely  due  to  the  difficulty 
inseparable  from  their  collection. 

The  early  history  of  Chicago,  and  the  first  records  of 
its  medical  men  and  practice,  are  intimately  associated 
with  its  old  fort.  Even  as  early  as  the  treaty  of  Green- 
ville, O.,  which  is  dated  August  3,  1795,  there  is  some 
reference  to  a  fort,  built  at  the  junction  of  the  lake 
and  the  river.*  This  was,  however,  a  small  stockade 
erected  for  the  protection  of  French  traders,  at  the  point 
where  the  north  and  south  branches  of  the  river  unite, 
some  remains  of  which  were  still  to  be  seen  in  the  year 
1818. 

Fort  Chicagof  was  built  by  the  United  States  Govern- 

*  Sketches  of  the  Country  on  the  Northern  Route,  from  Belleville,  111., 
to  the  city  of  New  York,  and  hack  by  the  Ohio  Valley,  with  a  sketch  of 
the  Crystal  Palace.     Jno.  Reynolds.     Belleville.    1854. 

f  In  the  papers  of  Mr.  J.  H.  Kinzie,  and  according  to  the  statement 
of  Mrs.  Gen.  Whistler,  lately  in  Chicago,  it  appears  that  this  fort  was 
called  by  the  name  of  Gen.  Dearborn  as  well  as  its  successor.  Mr. 
Kinzie's  papers  were  destroyed  in  the  Great  Fire,  which  consumed  the 
library  of  the  Chicago  Historical  Society. 


3 

"ment  in  1804,  and  but  little  is  known  of  it  except  that  it 
was  provided  with  a  subterranean  passage  and  sally-port, 
extending  from  the  parade  ground  to  the  river.*  The 
Indian  name,  which  it  bequeathed  to  the  city,  is  variously 
interpreted  as  referring  to  the  wild  onion,  or  the  pole-cat ; 
but  the  natives  themselves  asserted  that  it  was  the  title 
of  an  Indian  chief  who  had  been  drowned  in  the  river. 
In  the  manuscript  letter  of  M.  de  Ligney  at  Green  Bay 
to  M.  de  Siette  among  the  Illinois,  dated  in  1726,  the 
name  is  spelled,   uChicagoux."f 

The  narrative  of  the  massacre  at  Fort  Chicago  by  the 
Indians,  in  1812,  has  been  detailed  in  such  fullness,  that 
it  can  not  find  a  place  here.  It  is  now  a  matter  of  histor- 
ical record.  The  account  given  by  Mrs.  Helm,  however^ 
in  the  very  readable  volume  of  Mrs.  Kinzie,;}:  is  interest- 
ing in  this  connection,  as  it  relates  in  part  to  the  surgeon 
of  the  fort — Dr.  Isaac  V.  Van  Yoorhees.§ 

It  appears  from  Mrs.  Helm' s  narrative,  that  Dr.  Van 
Voorhees  came  up  to  her  during  the  very  hottest  part 
of  the  engagement.  He  was  severely  wounded,  having 
received  a  ball  in  the  leg,  and  his  horse  had  also  been  shot 
under  him.  Every  muscle  of  his  face  was  quivering  with 
agony.  Some  conversation  ensued  between  the  two,  when, 
writes  Mrs.  Helm,  ' '  a  young  Indian  raised  his  tomahawk 
at  me.     By  springing  aside,  I  avoided  the  blow  which . 

*  The  fort  was  then  occupied  by  fifty  men  and  armed  with  three  pieces- • 
of  artillery,  transported  thither  on  the  U.  S.  Schooner  Tracy,  Dorr, 
master.  This  vessel  did  not  cross  the  bar  and  enter  the  river,  but  anchored 
half  a  mile  from  the  shore,  and  discharged  its  freight  by  boats,  attracting 
the  presence  of  some  2,000  Indians,  who  came  to  view  the  "  big  canoe 
with  wings."  (See  Chicago  and  its  Suburbs,  by  Everett  Chamberlin. 
Chicago.  1874.  Also,  Chicago  Antiquities,  No.  2,  by  H.  H.  Hurlbut, 
Esq.     Chicago.     1875.) 

f  The  name  is  also  spelled  by  various  authorities,  Chikajo,  Checagua, 
and  Chekagua.     (See  Frauquelin's  map,  1684.) 

%  "  Wau-Bun;"  or  the  Eirly  Day  in  the  Northwest.  By  Mrs.  Jno.  H, 
Kinzie.     New  York  and  Chicago.     1857. 

§  His  name  is  also  given  Voorhees  and  Voorhes."  See  "  My  Own 
Times."  By  Jno.  Reynolds,  111.  1855.  Also,  "  Annals  of  the  West." 
J.  R.  Albach.     Pittsburgh.     1857. 


-was  intended  for  ray  skull,  but  which  alighted  on  my 
shoulder.  I  seized  him  around  the  neck,  and  while 
exerting  my  utmost  strength  to  get  possession  of  his 
scalping-knife,  which  hung  from  a  scabbard  over  his 
breast,  I  was  dragged  from  his  grasp  by  another  and  an 
•older  Indian.  The  latter  bore  me,  struggling  and  resist- 
ing, to  the  lake.  Notwithstanding  the  rapidity  with 
which  I  was  hurried  along,  I  recognized,  as  I  passed 
them,  the  lifeless  remains  of  the  unfortunate  surgeon. 
Some  murderous  tomahawk  had  stretched  him  upon  the 
very  spot  where  I  had  last  seen  him." 

I  have  purposely  omitted  the  conversation  which  is 
reported  to  have  occurred  between  the  two,  and  which 
is  exactly  repeated  in  almost  every  account  of  the  mas- 
sacre, since  it  reflects  but  little  credit  upon  the  wounded 
officer.  It  represents  him  as  in  an  agony  of  terror,  and 
his  companion  as  reproaching  him  for  his  pusillanimity. 
But  there  are  several  circumstances  which  the  professional 
Teader  can  not  fail  to  consider,  before  consigning  the 
-name  and  reputation  of  Dr.  Van  Yoorhees  to  historical 
obloquy.  Without  questioning  the  veracity  of  the  writer, 
it  is  evident  that  the  incidents  narrated  rest  upon  the 
recollection  of  a  single  individual,  and  that  individual 
a  woman  surrounded  by  circumstances  of  extreme  peril 
and  excitement.  She  appears  as  the  heroine  of  the 
story,  and  on  that  account  due  allowance  should  be  made 
for  partiality  of  statement.  Dr.  Yan  Yoorhees,  more- 
over, was  evidently  suffering  from  his  wounds.  We  only 
learn  of  that  inflicted  upon  the  leg.  What  other  injuries 
he  may  have  sustained — whether  of  the  brain,  chest  or 
abdomen — we  can  not  know.  Whether,  indeed,  he  was 
wounded  even  unto  death,  and  sank  lifeless  to  the  ground 
soon  after,  rather  as  the  result  of  this  than  from  the 
blow  of  a  tomahawk,  can  not  be  determined.  Jurists,  as 
well  as  medical  men,  learn  to  accept  with  great  reserve 
statements  made  either  in  articulo  mortis  or  in  the  im- 
mediate peril  of  violent  death.  Too  many  surgeons  have 
-exhibited  not  only  a  consummate  skill,  but  a  splendid 


courage  upon  the  field  of  battle,  for  their  professional 
brethren  to  doubt  the  compatibility  of  these  virtues. 
They  will  only  remember,  therefore,  of  their  martyred 
representative  in  the  battle  of  Chicago,  that  he  was  sorely 
wounded  in  the  discharge  of  his  professional  duties,  and 
that  he  died  the  death  of  a  soldier.* 

After  the  encounter,  the  survivors  must  have  sadly 
missed  the  attentions  of  the  dead  surgeon.  Mr.  Kinzie 
soon  applied  to  an  old  Indian  chief,  who  was  reputed  to 
possess  some  skill  in  these  matters,  to  extract  a  ball  from 
the  arm  of  Mrs.  Heald — the  wife  of  the  captain  who  had 
commanded  the  fort.  "No,  father,"  was  the  response, 
"I  cannot  do  it,  it  makes  me  sick  here"— said  the 
Indian,  pointing  to  his  heart.  Mr,  Kinzie  then  performed 
the  operation  himself  with  his  penknife.  The  accoutre- 
ments of  the  surgical  department  had  meantime  fallen 
into  possession  of  the  Indians.  Later,  we  learn  that  a 
French  trader,  a  M.  du  Pin,  was  in  the  habit  of  supplying, 
medicines  as  well  as  medical  advice  to  those  in  need  o£ 
either ;  and,  on  one  occasion,  we  hear  of  his  prescribing 
for  the  infant  of  a  Mrs.  Lee,  who  was  one  of  the  captives. 
It  appears  that  his  efforts  were  not  unattended  with 
success. 

In  the  year  1816,  the  fort  was  rebuilt  by  the  Govern- 
ment, under  the  supervision  of  Captain  Hezekiah  Bradley,, 
who  is  reported  to  have  been  so  zealous  in  the  discharge 
of  his  duties,  that  he  enlisted  officers  as  well  as  soldiers 
in  the  prosecution  of  the  work,  and  even  had  wooden 
pins  fashioned,  in  order  to  fasten  together  the  timbers  of 
the  buildings,  and  thus  economize  his  supply  of  spikes 
and  nails.  At  this  time,  also,  the  entire  tract  of  land 
was  ceded  to  the  United  States  by  the  Pottawatomies. 
With  them,  according  to   Judge  Caton,f  Chicago  had 

*  In  the  official  account  of  the  engagement,  the  loss  of  Dr.  Van  Voorhis 
(for  so  his  name  is  given  by  Captain  Heald)  is  deeply  deplored,  and  nothing 
is  said  that  reflects  in  the  slightest  degree  upon  his  character  as  an  officer 
and  surgeon. 

f  "The  last  of  the  Illinois,  and  a  Sketch  of  the  Pottawatomies."  By 
John  Dean  Caton,  LL.D.     Chicago.     1870. 


•ever  been  a  favorite  resort.  Here,  they  had  chosen  to 
hold  their  great  councils,  and  here,  they  concluded  both 
the  first  and  last  treaty  with  our  Government. 

In  the  year  1 818,  the  place  was  visited  by  Mr.  Gurdon 
Saltonstall  Hubbard,  who  is  now  a  resident  of  Chicago 
and  the  oldest  representative  of  its  early  days.  At  that 
time,  besides  the  fort,  there  were  but  two  residences 
standing,  one  that  of  Mr.  John  Kinzie,  the  other  of 
Antoine  Houlmette.  It  may  be  mentioned  here  that  Mr. 
Hubbard,  at  a  later  period,  (1834),  erected  the  first  brick 
building  ever  reared  in  Chicago.* 

Two  years  later,  we  find  recorded  the  name  of  another 
medical  gentleman,  Dr.  Alexander  Wolcott,  of  Connec- 
ticut. He  was  born  on  the  14th  day  of  February,  1790, 
at  Windsor,  Ct,  and  was  the  son  of  Alexander  Wolcott, 
Sr.,  and  Frances  Burbank.  His  father  was,  with  the 
writer  of  these  pages,  a  descendant  of  William  Hyde,  of 
Hartford,  Ct.  (1636),  and  was  graduated  at  Yale  College, 
becoming  afterward  a  distinguished  lawyer  and  Justice 
of  the  Peace  in  Windsor.  He  subsequently  removed  to 
Middletown,  Ct.,  where  he  was  appointed  collector  of 
the  customs  and  member  of  the  constitutional  convention 
of  1818.  President  Madison  subsequently  nominated 
him  as  a  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  but  the  federalists  in  the  Senate  succeeded  in  pre- 
venting the  appointment,  f  The  distinguished  Gfovernor, 
Henry  Wolcott,  was  his  near  relative.:}: 

Dr.  Wolcott  was  graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1809,  § 
and  must  have  received  his  degree  in  medicine  elsewhere, 
as  the  medical  department  of  that  University  was  not 
established  until  1814.  He  came  to  Chicago  in  1820  as 
an  Indian  agent  of  the  Government,   succeeding  to  the 

*  This  building  stood  on  the  corner  of  South  Water  and  La  Salle 
streets,  and  was  for  some  time  known  as  "  Hubbard's  Folly." 

f  Genealogy  of  the  Hyde  Family,  by  Chancellor  Reuben  Hyde  Wal- 
worth, LL.D.,  Albany,  N.  T.     1864.     Vol.  2,  p.  1121. 

%  History  of  Connecticut,  by  G.  H.  Hollister.     Xew  Haven.     1855. 

§  Catalogus  Collegii  Talensis  in  Xovo-Portu  in  Republica  Connecti- 
cutensi.    MDCCCLXV. 


position  of  Mr.  "Charles  Jewett,  and  was  soon  after  mar- 
ried to  Miss  Ellen  Marion  Kinzie,  then  sixteen  years  old, 
by  John  Hamlin,  a  Justice  of  the  Peace,  summoned  to 
the  village  in  order  to  perform  the  ceremony.  The  young 
lady  was  the  daughter  of  John  H.  Kinzie,  Esq. ,  and  was 
born  in  Chicago  in  the  month  of  December,  1804,  being 
indubitably  the  first  child  of  white  parents  born  on  the 
•soil.  Dr.  Wolcott  died  in  1830,  and  his  widow  was 
united  in  a  second  marriage  to  the  Hon.  Geo.  C.  Bates, 
•of  Salt  Lake  City.  Through  the  kindness  of  Henry  H. 
Hurlbut,  Esq.,  of  Chicago,  I  am  enabled  to  present  this 
fac  simile  of  t^n.Q  lady' s  autograph  : 


f%^  <x£ '  s&**£v 


By  a  stupid  act  of  our  local  legislators  the  name  of 
Wolcott  street,  which  served  as  an  historical  landmark 
■of  this  early  resident,  was  changed  to  North  State 
street. 

I  am  informed  by  the  Hon.  John  Wentworth  of  this 
city,  in  a  recent  letter,  that  Dr.  Wolcott  during  his  life- 
time served  in  the  capacity  of  an  army  surgeon.  It 
seems,  however,  tolerably  clear  that  he  performed  the 
duties  first  named,  residing  as  he  did  outside  of  the  fort ; 
though  it  may  well  be  believed  that  there  must  have  been 
a  demand  for  his  professional  services  such  as  he  could 
not  but  gratify,  and  indeed  his  selection  for  such  a  post 
must  have  resulted  in  part  from  his  attainments  as  a 
physician. 

The  outside  world  must  have  known  but  little  of 
the  infant  settlement  in  1823.  For  in  a  Gazetteer  * 
published  at  that  date,  the  information  respecting  Chicago 
is  extracted  from  an  account  given  in  "Schoolcraft's 
Travels."  It  appears  that  some  twelve  or  fifteen  houses 
had  been  erected,  which  were  occupied  by  some  sixty  or 
seventy  inhabitants.  "The  country  around  is  the  most 
fertile  and  beautiful  that  can"  be  imagined.     It  consists 

*  Gazetteer  of  the  States  of  Illinois  and  Mississippi,  by  Lewis  C.  Beck. 
1823. 


of  an  intermixture  of  woods  and  prairies,  diversified 
with  gentle  slopes  sometimes  attaining  the  elevation  of 
hills  (!),  irrigated  with  a  number  of  clear  streams  and 
rivers,  which  throw  their  waters  partly  into  Lake  Mich- 
igan and  partly  into  the  Mississippi  river.  It  is  already 
the  seat  of  several  flourishing  plantations." 

During  the  year  1822,  there  were  eighty-seven  men  in 
the  garrison  and  one  death  occurred  ;  during  the  ensuing, 
year,  there  were  ninety-five  men,  and  of  these,  three 
died.  The  fort  was  then  abandoned,  but  occupied  again 
in  1828,  one  year  after  the  passage  of  a  bill  in  the  legis- 
lature for  the  construction  of  the  Illinois  and  Michigan 
Canal.  This  was  the  genial  warmth  that  hastened  the- 
germination  of  the  seed  destined  to  produce  so  worthy  a 
harvest.  Game  was  abundant,  the  land  was  fertile,  and 
corn  easily  grown.  Occasionally  the  mail  was  brought 
from  Peoria  on  horseback.  But  Chicago  was  yet 
unborn. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  the  infant  first  opened  its- 
eyes  upon  Lake  Michigan,  in  an  uneventful  period  of 
history.  No  great  war  was  in  progress,  and  common- 
place men  were  in  power.  William  IV.,  plainest  and 
homeliest  of  royal  blood,  was  seated  on  the  British 
throne,  and  co-operating  with  the  whig  party  in  reforming 
parliamentary  representation,  and  in  restricting  the  opera- 
tion of  the  oppressive  corn  laws.  During  the  Revolution- 
ary War  he  had  figured  in  the  dance,  at  No.  1  Broadway, 
with  the  loyalist  belles  of  New  York  City.  The  triumph 
of  the  constitutional  party  in  France  had  made  a  king  of 
Louis  Philippe — a  man  as  incapable  of  exciting  the  affec- 
tions of  others,  as  he  was  destitute  of  magnanimity  himself. 
He  still  preserved  the  recollection  of  his  wandering  tour- 
in  America.  General  La  Fayette,  now  seventy  years  old, 
had  returned  to  France,  rewarded  with  the  friendship  of 
Washington  and  the  gratitude  of  the  United  States. 
Otho  I.  had  just  been  bolstered  up  on  the  throne  of 
Greece.  Poland  had  sunk  down  disarmed — the  helpless 
victim  of  the  iron  sceptre  of  the  Muscovite.     Then,  as- 


now,  a  Don  Carlos  at  the  head  of  a  faction  of  Carlists, 
was  agitating  Spain.  Perhaps  the  only  man  in  Europe, 
who  was  making  himself  felt  as  a  power,  was  Daniel 
O'Connell,  who  was  threatening  the  repeal  of  the 
National  Union  in  Parliament  at  the  head  of  a  legion 
of  Irishmen. 

It  seemed  as  though  the  succession  of  splendid  events, 
that  had  culminated  at  Waterloo,  and  even  lighted  up 
by  reflection  the  gloom  of  St.  Helena,  had  been  followed 
by  a  general  reaction,  in  which  all  the  great  States 
participated. 

In  our  own  country  also,  the  hero  of  the  battle  of 
New  Orleans  h..  L  laid  aside  his  sword  in  order  to  dis- 
charge the  more  peaceful  duties  of  the  chief  magistracy. 
The  population  of  the  country,  according  to  its  then 
recently  taken  census,  amounted  to  twelve  and  one-hal 
millions,  a  figure  three  times  greater  than  that  obtained 
by  the  first  colonial  census,  and  yet  but  one-fourth  of 
that  which  should  represent  the  people  of  the  United 
States  in  1870.  It  was  the  semi-centennial  decade  of  oar 
first  hundred  years  of  national  life.  Already  the  senti- 
ments and  passions,  that  were  later  to  culminate  in  civil 
war,  had  been  expressed  in  the  halls  of  Congress.  The 
great  speeches  of  Webster  and  Hayne  had  been  delivered. 
South  Carolina  had  commenced  to  mutter  the  maxims 
of  her  political  heresy,  which  precipitated  soon  after  the 
rupture  between  the  President  and  the  Vice-President, 
Mr.  John  C.  Calhoun. 

With  even  a  cursory  glance  at  the  condition  of  the 
medical  profession  in  the  United  States,  we  discover  that 
great  advance  had  been  made  since  the  first  resident 
physician  in  the  country,  Dr.  Walter  Russell,  came  from 
England  to  the  Colony  of  Virginia  in  1608.  Drs.  John 
Bard  and  Peter  Middleton  had,  in  1750,  been  first  tc 
inject  and  dissect  the  body  of  a  criminal  for  anatomical 
purposes ;  and  in  fifteen  years  thereafter  the  Medical 
Department  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  had  been 
organized — the  pioneer  of  all  the  medical  colleges  in   he 


10 

■country.  The  profession  venerated  the  name  of  the 
heroic  Dr.  Warren,  who  fell  at  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill, 
as  well  as  that  of  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush,  who  was  one  of 
the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Dr. 
Physick  had  invented  the  tonsillotome  which  is  now  in 
general  use,  and  established  his  reputation 'as  one  of  the 
most  eminent  surgeons  in  the  United  States.  Dr.  Mc- 
Dowell, in  1809,  had  performed  ovariotomy,  and  lithoto- 
mized  the  poor  lad  who  subsequently  became  President, 
James  K.  Polk.  Operations  had  been  recorded  for 
ligation  of  the  carotid,  subclavian,  brachial,  femoral, 
internal,  external  and  common,  iliac  arteries  ;  amputa- 
tions had  been  accomplished  at  the  hip  and  shoulder 
joints  ;  the  radius,  clavicle,  head  of  the  humerus  and 
femur,  the  astragalus,  and  the  fifth  and  sixth  ribs  had 
been  exsected ;  the  tumor  of  spina  bifida,  the  tongue,  the 
spleen  and  the  parotid  gland  had  been  excised ;  litho- 
tripsy and  staphyloraphy  had  been  done ;  the  hydro- 
cephalic head  had  been  tapped. 

Thirty-two  medical  works*  had  been  issued  from  the 
American  press — some  of  them,  translations  from  foreign 
authors ;  some,  reprints  of  foreign  editions  ;  some,  from 
the  pen  of  native-born  physicians  and  surgeons.  Thirty 
medical  periodicals  had  been  established,  but,  at  the  date 
to  which  I  refer,  of  these,  but  ten  had  survived,  f 

*  See  the  Principles  and  Practice  of  Surgery,  by  Henry  H.  Smith, 
M.D.,  Phil.  iS63,  from  which  these  details  have  been  obtained.  The 
works  of  American  authorship  referred  to,  are  :  Review  of  Medical 
Improvements  in  the  18th  Century,  by  David  Ramsey  (1800);  Martin  on 
Goitre  (1800);  Barnwell's  Causes  of  Disease  in  Warm  Atmospheres  (1802); 
Parrish  on  Ruptures  (1811);  Dorsey's  Elements  of  Surgery  (1813) ;  Hosack's 
Surgery  of  the  Ancients  (1813);  Mann's  Medical  History  of  the  Campaigns 
of  1812-14  (1816);  Anderson's  System  of  Surgical  Anatomy  (1822);  Gibson's 
Institutes  and  Practice  of  Surgery  (1824);  Barton's  Treatment  of  Anchy- 
losis by  Formation  of  Artificial  Joints  (1827);  Darrach's  Anatomy  of  the 
Groin  (1830);  and  Gross's  Anatomy,  Physiology  and  Diseases  of  Bones 
and  Joints  (1830). 

f  These  survivors  were :  Transactions  of  the  College  of  Physicians  of 
Phila.,  Svo,  Phil.  (1793— 1850);  North  American  Medical  and  Surgical  Jour- 
nal, Phila.  (1826—1831);   American  Journal  of  the  Medical  Sciences,  8vo, 


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11 

The  county  of  Cook,  in  Illinois,  was  organized  in  the 
year  1831,  and  that  may  properly  be  considered  the  date 
of  the  commencement  of  the  medical  and  general  history 
of  Chicago.*  For  a  description  of  the  place  at  that  time, 
I  am  largely  indebted  to  the  work  of  Mrs.  John  H.  Kin- 
zie,  to  which  reference  has  been  made. 

The  fort  was  enclosed  by  high  pickets,  with  bastions 
at  the  alternate  angles,  and  large  gates  opening  to  the 
north  and  south  ;  while  here  and  there  were  small  sally- 
ports for  the  accommodation  of  the  inmates.  Beyond 
the  parade  ground,  which  extended  south  of  the  pickets, 
were  the  company  gardens,  well  filled  with  currant  bushes 
and  young  fruit  trees.  The  fort  itself  was  stationed  on  the 
south  bank  of  the  river,  near  what  is  now  its  mouth,  but, 
at  this  time,  the  river  itself  swept  around  the  little  prom- 
ontory on  which  the  stockade  was  erected,  and,  passing 
southward  nearly  beneath  what  is  now  the  pavement  of 
Michigan  avenue,  joined  the  lake  at  a  point  about  half 
a  mile  below,  where  Madison  street  now  extends.  The 
left  bank  of  the  river  was  formed  by  a  long  sand- spit, 
extending  southward  from  the  northern  shore.  This 
was  cut  through  by  the  engineers  of  the  United  States 
in  1833,  for  the  purpose  of  improving  the  harbor ;  and 
thus  was  formed  the  present  riv^er-mouth.  The  old  fort 
stood  like  a  faithful  sentinel  at  his  post  till  1856,  when  it 
was  demolished,  after  having  witnessed  the  growth  of  its 
protege  into  the  encroaching  city  that  enforced  its  de- 
struction. 

Between  the  gardens  and  the  river  bank  was  a  log 
cabin,  erected  in  1 817.     It  had  been  the  residence  of  Jean 

Phila.  (1827—1876);  Boston  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal,  8vo,  (1828); 
Transylvania  Journal  of  Medical  and  Associated  Science,  Lexington,  Ky. 
(1828-37);  New  York  Medical  and  Physical  Journal  (1829-31);  Maryland 
Medical  Recorder,  8vo,  Baltimore,  Md.  (1829-32);  New  York  Medical 
Inquirer  and  American  Lancet  (1830);  and  the  New  York  Medico-Chirur- 
gical  Bulletin  (1831-2). 

*  The  map  of  the  original  town,  by  James  Thompson,  surveyor  for  the 
State  Canal  Commissioners,  is  dated  Aug.  4,  1830.  It  provided  for  a 
public  levee  from  South  Water  street  to  the  river,  the  plan  of  which  was 
subsequently  abandoned. 


12 

Baptiste  Beaubien,  Point  au  Sable,  a  native  of  San  Do- 
mingo, who  located  here  in  1796,  and  tlras  occasioned  the 
utterance  of  the  Indian  Hibernicism  that  "the  first 
white  man  in  Chicago  was  a  negro."  The  cabin  had 
finally  come  into  the  possession  of  an  Indian  trader, 
named  Le  Mai,  from  whom  it  had  been  purchased  by 
Mr.  Kinzie.  Further  to  the  south  was  a  rickety  tenement, 
built  several  years  before  by  John  Dean,  a  post-sutler,, 
and  now  used  by  his  family  as  a  school-house  and  resi- 
dence. It  had  been  so  far  undermined  by  the  lake  as  to> 
have  partially  fallen  backward. 

On  the  northern  bank  of  the  river,  and  directly  in 
front  of  the  fort,  stood  the  residence  of  Mr.  John  Kinzie. 
It  was  a  long,  low  building,  with  a  piazza  extending  along 
its  front,  overlooking  a  broad,  green  space  which  stretched 
between  it  and  the  river.  It  was  shaded  by  a  row  of 
Lombardy  poplars  in  front,  and  two  immense  cotton- 
wood  trees  in  the  rear  ;  a  fine  and  well-cultivated  garden 
showing  on  one  side,  with  dairy,  stables  and  other  out- 
houses adjacent. 

Still  further  to  the  north,  stood  a  small  but  substantial 
building  of  hewed  and  squared  logs,  known  as  the 
Agency  House.  On  either  side  of  its  two  wings  were  the 
residences  of  the  Government  employees — blacksmiths 
and  laborers — mostly  half-breed  Canadians,  with  an 
occasional  Yankee  among  them.  There  was  but  one 
other  building  on  the  North  Side,  and  that  was  at  this- 
time  vacant.  It  had  been  erected  by  a  former  resident, 
named  Samuel  Miller. 

On  the  southern  bank  of  the  river,  between  the  fort 
and  the  point  where  the  river  divides,  there  was  no  dwell- 
ing house.  The  prairie  here  was  low  and  wet — in  the 
driest  weather  affording  a  poor  foot-path  for  the  pedes- 
trian, and  often  overflowed  in  the  rise  of  the  river  water. 
Mrs.  Kinzie  states  that  a  horseman  who  once  made  the 
trip  had  gotten  his  feet  wet  in  the  stirrups,  and  declared 
that  he"  would  not  give  a  sixpence  for  an  acre  of  it."  A 
muddy  streamlet  wound  around  from  the  present  site  of 


13 

the  Tremont  House,  to  join  the  river  at  the  foot  of  State 
street. 

The  projection  of  land  between  the  north  and  south 
branches  was  variously  known  as  "The  Point,"  "The 
Forks,"  or  "  Wolf  Point"  —  the  latter  term  having  been 
derived  from  the  name  of  an  old  Indian  chief.  Here  was 
a  canoe  ferry  for  the  accommodation  of  passengers. 
The  residence  of  Mark  Beaubien,  Jr. ,  distinguished  by 
its  additional  upper  story  and  bright  blue  window  shut- 
ters, stood  upon  the  Point,  and  was  the  admiration  of  the 
little  community  in  consequence  of  these  modern  im- 
provements. Facing  down  the  river  from  the  west,  was 
a  small  tavern,  kept  by  Mr.  Elijah  Went  worth,  and  near  it 
lay  several  log  cabins,  occupied  by  Alexander  Robinson, 
the  half-breed  Pottawatomie  chief,  his  wife's  connections, 
Billy  Caldwell,  the  "  Sau-ga-nash,"  and  the  wife  of  the 
latter,  who  was  the  daughter  of  "  Nee- scot- nee-meg." 
Oholson  Kercheval,  a  small  trader,  occupied  one  of  these 
cabins,  and,  in  close  proximity,  stood  the  school-house, 
a  small  log  cabin,  used  occasionally  as  a  place  of  pub- 
lic worship.  Here,  we  learn  that  a  reverend  gentleman 
named  Charles  See  did  violence  to  the  King's  English  on 
Sundays  when  opportunity  offered.  Some  distance  up 
the  North  Branch,  was  located  the  Clybourn  residence, 
and  an  old  building,  erected  some  time  before  by  a  settler 
named  Reuben  E.  Heacock,  was  still  standing,  at  a 
point  four  miles  distant  up  the  South  Branch.  This  house 
had  some  interest  attaching  to  it,  in  consequence  of  its 
connection  with  the  old  Indian  massacre. 

At  the  time  to  which  we  refer,  the  fort  was  occupied 
by  two  companies  of  soldiers,  under  the  command  of 
Lieutenant  Hunter,  in  the  absence  of  Major  Fowle  and 
Captain  Scott.  Lieutenant  Furman  had  died  during  the 
preceding  year.  The  subordinate  officers  were  Lieuten- 
ants Engie  and  Foster.  The  Kinzie  family  then  occupied 
the  Agency  House,  and  Post-Master  Bailey  was  quartered 
in  their  residence. 
In  the  brief  description  above  given  are  enumerated, 


14 

it  is  believed,  all  the  buildings  then  erected,  and  all  the 
residents  occupying  them,  with  the  single  exception  of 
Dr.  Harmon,  to  whom  we  hasten  to  give  our  attention. 

Elijah  Dewey  Harmon  was  born  on  the  20th  day  of 
August,  1782,  in  the  town  of  Bennington,  Vermont. 
After  completing  his  education  as  far  as  possible  in  that 
place,  he  resorted  to  Manchester,  in  his  native  State, 
where  he  pursued  the  study  of  medicine  in  the  office  and 
under  the  direction  of  a  noted  practitioner  of  the  place, 
named  Swift.  *  At  the  expiration  of  the  two  or  three 
years  which  were  employed  in  acquiring  a  knowledge  of 
his  profession,  he  removed  to  Burlington,  Vt.,  at  the 
early  age  of  twenty-five  years,  and  began  to  practice 
medicine  in  connection  with  the  business  of  a  drug  store, 
as  was  customary  at  that  time.f  Here  he  remained  until 
the  occurrence  of  the  war  of  1812,  when  he  hastened  to 
offer  his  services  as  a  volunteer  surgeon.  Dr.  Harmon,, 
during  this  period,  had  the  distinguished  honor  of  serv- 
ing as  a  surgeon  on  board  the  flag-ship  of  the  gallant 
Commodore  McDonough,  in  the  battle  of  Plattsburgh,  on 
the  11th  day  of  September,  1814.  If  the  terrific  fire  to 
which  the  Saratoga  was  exposed  in  that  engagement  be 
remembered,  we  may  well  believe  that  the  doctor' s  skill 
and  courage  must  have  been  put  to  a  severe  test. 

At  the  close  of  the  war,  the  doctor  returned  to  Burling- 
ton, where  he  continued  in  civil  practice  with  a  success 
which  contributed  not  only  to  his  financial  prosperity, 
but  to  the  establishment  of  his  reputation.  In  the  year 
1829,  however,  he  suffered  some  pecuniary  losses  in  con- 
sequence of  his  speculations  connected  with  a  marble 
quarry,  and  he  determined,  as  many  of  his  successors 

*  The  three  medical  schools  of  Vermont  had  not  then  been  founded. 
Castleton  Medical  College  was  established  in  1818  ;  the  Medical  Depart- 
ment of  the  University  of  Vermont  in  1822 ;  and  the  Vermont  Medical 
College  in  1827. 

f  I  am  indebted  for  these  details  to  his  son,  still  a  resident  of  Chicago, 
Mr.  I.  D.  Harmon.  Unfortunately,  most  of  the  family  documents  were 
destroyed  in  the  Great  Chicago  Fire,  and  among  them  was  the  diploma  of 
the  University,  which  conferred  upon  the  doctor  his  degree  in  medicine. 


15 

have  done  since  then,  to  advance  his  fortunes  in  the  far 
West.  During  that  year,  therefore,  he  spent  several 
months  in  Jacksonville,  111.,  engaged  in  the  selection  of 
a  suitable  locality  in  which  to  settle.  After  returning  to 
his  native  State  and  completing  his  arrangements  for  a 
final  removal,  he  left  a  second  time,  and  proceeded 
directly  to  Chicago,  traveling  on  horseback  from  Detroit,, 
and  arriving  here  in  the  fall  of  1830.  His  family  joined 
him  in  June  of  the  succeeding  year. 

It  happened  that  Dr.  J.  B.  Finley,  the  surgeon  of  the 
garrison,  was,  at  this  time,  about  to  leave  the  post,  and 
thus  Dr.  Harmon  came  to  be  at  once  installed  in  his 
position — he  and  his  family  taking  up  their  residence  in 
the  fort,  which  then  was  held  by  two  companies  of 
United  States  troops.  Little  must  have  occurred  to  dis- 
turb the  monotony  of  his  new  duties,  until  the  succeed- 
ing spring,  when  the  country  became  agitated  again  in 
consequence  of  the  Black  Hawk  war. 

In  May  of  the  year  1832,  cholera  made  its  appearance 
upon  the  New  England  coast,  and  extended  rapidly 
westward  along  the  water  courses  of  our  northern 
frontier,  one  branch  apparently  diverging  by  way  of  the 
Hudson  river  to  New  York  City.  Five  companies  were 
at  once  hurried,  in  consequence  of  the  exigencies  of  the 
time,  from  Fortress  Monroe  to  Chicago,  and  traversed 
the  entire  distance  of  1,800  miles  in  eighteen  days,  a 
transportation  which  was  then  considered  unprecedented 
in  rapidity,  and  which  was  really  marvellous  in  view  of  the 
facilities  then  attainable.  General  Scott  arrived  with 
this  detachment  in  a  steamer,*  on  the  eighth  day  of  July, 
1832,  and,  as  might  have  been  expected,  cholera  rapidly 
spread  through  his  command,  one  man  out  of  three  being 
attacked,  and  many  dying. 

It  was  then  wisely  decided  to  separate  the  two  com- 
panies in  the  fort  from  those  which  had  newly  arrived, 
and  thus,  if  possible,  prevent  the  extension  of  the  dis- 

*  This  vessel,  the  Sheldon  Thompson,  was  the  first  steamer  to  visit 
Chicago,  but  it  did  not  enter  the  harbor. 


16 

ease  among  the  former.  These  two  companies,  according- 
ly, were  encamped  at  a  short  distance  from  the  stockade, 
and  placed  under  the  professional  charge  of  Dr.  Harmon. 
While .  due  allowance  is,  of  course,  to  be  made  for  the 
favorable  circumstances  in  which  this  isolated  detach- 
ment was  placed,  it  certainly  reflects  great  credit  upon 
their  surgeon,  that  among  the  men  affected  with  cholera 
under  his  charge,  but  two  or  three  deaths  occurred.  It 
maybe  here  remarked  that  the  doctor  attributed  his  suc- 
cess to  the  fact  that  he  did  not  employ  calomel  in  the 
treatment  of  the  disease.  Of  the  treatment  employed  in 
the  fort,  and  its  results,  we  shall  have  something  to  say 
hereafter. 

Some  misunderstanding  seems  to  have  occurred  at  this 
time  between  General  Scott  and  Dr.  Harmon,  in  reference 
to  the  line  of  conduct  pursued  by  the  latter.  The 
general,  like  a  great  many  military  men  since  his  day, 
desired  the  surgeon  to  devote  his  attention  exclusively 
to  the  companies  under  his  care,  while  the  good-hearted 
doctor  could  not  but  heed  the  demand  for  his  services 
by  civilians,  and  others  not  in  the  military  service.  Cer- 
tain it  is  that  he  endeared  himself  to  the  citizens  of  the 
little  town  by  his  conduct  at  this  time,  and  we  are  not 
surprised  to  learn  that  after  the  epidemic  had  subsided, 
Gen.  Scott  and  his  command  had  pushed  farther  south, 
and  the  monotonous  routine  of  garrison  life  had  been 
endured  for  another  year,  that  in  the  spring  of  1832,  Dr. 
Harmon,  having  secured  the  Kinzie  house  as  a  place  of 
residence,  removed  to  it  with  his  family. 

Before  concluding,  however,  the  narrative  of  Dr. 
Harmon's  military  career,  it  is  proper  to  mention  the 
fact  that  he  performed  an  amputation  in  the  fort  during 
the  winter  of  1832.  This  is  certainly  the  first  record  that 
we  possess  of  any  capital  operation  in  Chicago ;  and  it 
is  probable  that  it  was,  in  point  of  fact,  the  first  surgical 
operation  of  any  magnitude  ever  attempted  in  the  place. 
A  half-breed  Canadian  had  frozen  his  feet,  while  engaged 
in  the  transportation  of  the  mail  on  horseback  from 


17 

Green  Bay  to  Chicago.*  The  doctor,  assisted  by  his 
brother,  tied  the  unfortunate  man  to  a  chair,  applied  a 
tourniquet  to  each  lower  extremity,  and  with  the  aid  of 
the  rusty  instruments  which  he  had  transported  on  horse- 
back through  sun  and  shower  from  Detroit  to  Chicago, 
removed  one  entire  foot  and  a  large  portion  of  the  other. 
Needless  to  say  those  were  not  the  days  of  anaesthetics, 
and  the  invectives  in  mingled  French  and  English,  of  the 
mail  carrier's  vocabulary,  soon  became  audible  to  every 
one  in  the  vicinity  of  the  stockade.  It  is  gratifying  to 
note  that  the  first  recorded  amputation  in  Chicago  was 
crowned  with  a  most  satisfactory  success. 

Dr.  Harmon  may  properly  be  called  the  Father  of 
Medicine  in  Chicago.  For,  in  the  removal  and  establish- 
ment of  himself  and  his  family  in  the  Kinzie  house,  we 
find  the  first  trace  of  the  settlement  of  a  civil  practitioner 
in  the  community.  His  object  in  effecting  this  change 
was  to  engage  in  the  practice  of  medicine — all  other 
transactions  having  been  made  subordinate  to  this. 

A  brief  glance  at  his  surroundings  at  this  time  might 
prove  interesting.  His  office  and  residence  combined 
was  a  cabin,  whose  floor  and  walls  were  constructed  of 
hewn  logs — the  former,  of  course,  innocent  of  carpets. 
It  contained  twelve  rooms,  lighted  by  small  panes  of 
glass,  and  heated  by  wood  burned  in  stoves  brought  from 
Detroit.  His  food  was  largely  bacon,  transported  from 
the  valley  of  the  Wabash  in  the  now  traditional  i:  prairie 
schooner,"  with  lard  as  a  substitute  for  butter — and  an 
occasional  slice  of  venison,  or  a  wild  turkey,  as  an 
entremets.  His  medicines  he  had  brought  with  him 
from  Vermont,  together  with  the  rusty  instruments  of 
which  mention  has  been  made.  But  his  medical  library 
— to  his  honor  be  it  said — was  the  chief  part  of  his  arma- 
mentarium. It  consisted  of  over  one  hundred  volumes, 
and  some  of  those  have,  without  doubt,  been  enumerated 
in  the  foot  note  upon  another  page  giving  the  list  of 

*  The  winter  of  this  year  was  unprecedentedly  severe.  There  is  abun- 
dant collateral  evidence  on  this  point. 


18 

works  published  in  America  before  this  date.  How 
many  of  his  successors  have  engaged  in  the  practice  of 
medicine,  with  far  less  provision  for  the  refurnishing  of 
the  storehouse  of  professional  science  ! 

The  doctor' s  visits  must  have  been  made  largely  on 
foot ;  as  Beaubien  is  reported  to  have  possessed  the  only 
vehicle  on  wheels  to  be  found  in  the  town,*  and  that 
judging  from  the  description,  must  have  greatly  resembled 
the  "  one-hoss  shay,"  so  graphically  delineated  by 
another  member  of  our  profession.  When  he  had  occa- 
sion to  cross  the  river,  it  was  necessary  to  paddle  himself 
over,  in  one  of  the  dug-out  canoes,  which  were  generally 
tied  in  front  of  each  residence,  or  resort  to  ' '  Wolf 
Point,"  where  a  canoe  ferry  offered  merely  the  same 
facilities. 

Some  idea  may  be  formed  of  the  general  character  of 
the  doctor' s  patients,  from  a  criticism  written  by  Latrobe 
in  the  autumn  of  1833. f  He  describes  "a  doctor  or  two, 
two  or  three  lawyers,  a  land  agent  and  five  or  six  hotel 
keepers  ;  these  may  be  considered  the  stationary  occu- 
pants and  proprietors  of  the  score  of  clap -board  houses 
around  you  ;  then,  for  the  birds  of  passage,  exclusive  of 
he  Pottawatomies,  you  have  emigrants,  speculators, 
horse  dealers  and  stealers  ;  rogues  of  every  description, 
white, black  and  red  ;  quarter-breeds  and  men  of  no  breed 
at  all ;  dealers  in  pigs,  poultry  and  potatoes  ;  creditors 
of  Indians  ;  sharpers  ;  peddlers  ;  grog- sellers  ;  Indian 
agents,  traders  and  contractors  to  supply  the  Post" 
— certainly  not  a  highly  encouraging  picture  of  a 
clientele. 

Medical  examinations  for  life-insurance,  which  have 
since  proved  a  source  of  remuneration  to  the  profession, 
were  then  unknown.     It  would  appear  from  an  article 

*  It  is  said  that  the  villagers,  upon  the  arrival  of  this  vehicle  from  the 
East,  paid  it  distinguished  honor,  "turning  out  in  procession  and  parading 
the  streets." — Chicago  Antiquities.    No.  2. 

f  Western  Portraiture  and  Emigrants'  Guide.  Daniel  S.  Curtis.  New 
York.     1852. 


19 

published  during  the  ensuing  year  in  a  literary  period- 
ical, not  only  that  the  general  subject  of  life  insurance 
was  little  understood  in  the  West,  but  that  the  basis 
upon  which  policies  were  issued  to  the  assured,  was  the 
statement  of  the  applicant,  endorsed  by  his  family 
physician  only/'* 

As  for  the  fees  given  in  remuneration  of  professional 
services,  perhaps  the  less  said  upon  the  subject  the 
better.  But  it  is  pleasant  to  note  that  a  precedent  had 
been  established  in  the  country,  for  the  encouragement 
of  the  humble  toilers  on  the  Lake  shore.  Dr.  McDowell 
had  even  then  received  fifteen  hundred  dollars  for  the 
performance  of  ovariotomyf — a  reward  which,  consider- 
ing the  scarcity  of  money  and  the  price  of  labor  and 
food,  was  fully  equal  to  the  famous  fee  paid  Sir  Astley 
Cooper  by  Mr.  Hyatt,  and  only  surpassed  by  the  mu- 
nificent honorarium,  given  to  a  contemporary  surgeon 
as  recently  reported  in  the  secular  press. 

Mrs.  Kinzie  describes  the  doctor  as  she  used  to  see  him, 
when  she  and  her  friends  made  little  excursions  on  horse- 
back in  the  vicinity  of  their  residence.:}:  On  one  occasion 
he  was  engaged  in  superintending  the  construction  of  a 
sod  fence  near  the  lake,  and  planting  fruit  stones,  with  a 
view  to  a  prospective  garden  and  orchard,  under  the 
branches  of  the  trees  that  arched  overhead.  "We 
usually  stopped,"  she  remarks,  "for  a  little  chat.  The 
two  favorite  themes  of  the  doctor  were,  horticulture  and 
the  certain  future  importance  of  Chicago.  That  it  was 
destined  to  be  a  great  city,  was  his  unalterable  conviction, 
and  indeed,  by  this  time,  all  forest  and  prairie  as  it  was, 
we  half  began  to  believe  it  ourselves." 

"  The  glorious  dreams  of  good  Dr.  Harmon,"  as  they 
were  called,  produced  a  practical  result  in  his  case.  In 
the  spring  of  1833,  he  secured  by  pre-emption,  one  hun- 

*  See  the  Western.  Monthly  Magazine,  Vol.  2,  1834.     Cincinnati,  Ohio. 
f  Lives  of  Eminent  American  Physicians  and   Surgeons  ,of  the  19th 
Century.     S.  D.  Gross,  M.D.     Philadelphia.     1861.     Page  228. 
X    Opus  cit. 


20 

dred  and  thirty  acres  of  land  lying  next  to  the  Lake  and 
just  south  of  what  is  now  16th  street.  In  order  to  make 
good  the  title,  he  built  a  small  log  cabin  upon  this  prop- 
erty, and  resided  there  until  the  spring  of  1834,  when  he 
left  the  State  for  Texas.  To-day  the  doctor's  farm  is 
worth  between  five  and  six  millions  of  dollars.*  Had 
his  sons  possessed  the  same  confidence  in  the  future  of 
Chicago  as  that  felt  by  their  father,  they  would  now  be 
enjoying  the  fruit  of  his  wise  providence.  One  of  them, 
however,  had  been  entrusted  with  a  power  of  attorney 
for  the  sale  of  this  property,  and  accordingly,  contrary 
to  the  advice  and  counsel  of  its  pre-emptor,  it  was  sold 
for  a  sum  which  then  seemed  an  enormous  price  for  the 
land,  but  which  was  in  fact  •  a  paltry  consideration  for 
the  magnificent  squares  which  are  now  covered  by  elegant 
metropolitan  residences.  It  is,  however,  somewhat  grat- 
ifying to  reflect  that  the  most  valuable  residence  prop- 
erty in  Chicago,  was  once,  in  fee  simple,  the  homestead 
of  its  earliest  resident  physician. 

Dr.  Harmon  died  on  the  3rd  day  of  January,  1869,  after 
having  made  several  trips  to  Texas,  where  he  not  only 
engaged  in  the  practice  of  medicine,  but  invested  in  real 
estate  which  has  since  greatly  appreciated  in  value. 

It  will  be  seen  from  what  has  preceded,  that  he  was  of 
an  adventurous  disposition — an  essential  element  in  the 
character  of  all  successful  pioneers.  A  recent  histori- 
ographer has  said  that  the  early  settlers  of  the  West 
made  the  name  adventurer  forever  respectable — and  he 
has  wisely  spoken.  Out  of  their  loins  came  a  common- 
wealth— most  of  its  virtues  are  hereditary,  and  its  vices 
have  been  chiefly  acquired. 

Dr.  Harmon,  during  his  life,  served  not  only  as  a  Jus- 
tice of  the  Peace,  but,  in  conjunction  with  Col.  R.  J. 
Hamilton  and  Mr.  Russell  E.  Heacock,  officiated  in  the 
first  Board  of  School  Commissioners,  organized  under  the 
law.  The  Doctor's  strong  conviction  of  the  immense 
prospective  value  of  the  land  known  as  the  School  Sec- 

*  This  is  the  value  as  estimated  by  W.  D.  Kerfoot,  Esq.,  of  Chicago. 


21 

tion,  led  him  here  also  to  strenuously  oppose  its  sale. 
In  this  matter,  as  in  the  disposition  of  his  own  property, 
his  judgment  was  overruled  by  others,  and  but  forty 
thousand  dollars  were  for  this  reason  realized  from  the 
sale  of  six  hundred  and  forty  acres  of  land,  the  value  of 
which  to-day  is  more  than  fifty  millions  of  dollars. 

In  person,  Dr.  Harmon  possessed  a  commanding  fig- 
ure, and  his  features  were  such  as  proclaimed  at  a  glance 
both  his  parentage  and  his  profession.  There  were  the 
strong  outlines  of  the  New  England  face,  with  the  beard 
shaven  in  the  manner  adopted  by  the  profession  in 
France — a  face  whose  like  is  often  seen  in  the  portraits  of 
the  heroes  of  the  Revolution.  There  were,  besides,  the 
evidences  of  broad  culture,  high  attainments  and  wide 
experience — the  traits  of  one,  whose  mental  horizon  is 
not  bounded  by  the  definitions  of  other  men.  He  was 
also  a  gentleman  having  a  generous,  whole-hearted  dis- 
position. One  of  the  streets  of  our  city  still  bears  his 
name.  The  profession  have  little  need  to  be  ashamed  of 
their  first  civil  representative  in  Chicago. 

In  order  to  a  correct  understanding  of  this  narrative,  it 
is  now  necessary  to  retrace  our  steps  to  the  old  fort,  which 
we  left  at  the  time  of  the  exodus  of  Dr.  Harmon  and  his 
family.  In  response  to  my  inquiries  (for  the  answers  to 
which  I  am  greatly  indebted  to  Assistant  Surgeon  John 
S.  Billings,  U.  S.  A.,  now  of  the  Surgeon  General's  Office,) 
it  is  made  clear  that  there  is  no  record  of  any  medical 
officer  stationed  at  the  fort,  prior  to  the  time  of  Assis- 
tant Surgeon  S.  Gr.  J.  DeCamp,  of  New  Jersey.  Of  Dr. 
Yan  Voorhees  and  Dr.  J.  B.  Finley,  no  information  can 
be  obtained  at  the  War  Department.  Dr.  DeCamp  was 
appointed  Assistant  Surgeon,  October  10,  1823;  promoted 
Surgeon,  December  1, 1833  ;  retired  in  1862,  and  died  at 
Saratoga  Springs,  New  York,  September  8,  1871.  As 
it  is  he  who  makes  the  official  report  of  the  cholera 
cases  in  the  fort,  during  the  prevalence  of  the  epidemic,* 

*  Statistical  Report  on  the  Sickness  and  Mortality  in  the  Army  of  the 
United  States,  prepared  under  the  direction  of  Thomas  Lawson,  M.D. 


22 


it  seems  probable  that  it  was  he  who  was  present  and 
responsible  for  the  treatment  and  its  results.  According 
to  this  report,  two  hundred  cases  were  admitted  into 
hospital  in  the  course  of  six  or  seven  days,  out  of  the 
entire  force  of  one  thousand,  fifty-eight  of  which  termi- 
nated fatally.  All  the  cases  were  treated  by  calomel  and 
blood-letting,  and,  according  to  Surgeon  DeCamp,  this 
proved  so  efficacious  in  his  hands,  that  he  regarded  the 
disease  as  "robbed  of  its  terrors"  (!).  He  inclines  to  the 
opinion  that  the  disease  was  contagious,  in  consequence 
of  the  fact  that  severa]  citizens  of  "  the  village"  died  of 
cholera,  although,  prior  to  the  arrival  of  the  steamer,  no 
case  had  occurred,  either  in  the  fort  or  the  village.  He 
notes  the  predisposition  to  the  disease,  evident  in  those 
of  intemperate  habits. 

The  table  which  is  appended  in  a  note,*  is  compiled 
from  reports  of  each  quarter  of  the  year,  published  in  the 
volume  referred  to  above.  Although  it  is  a  return  from 
a  military  garrison,  it  is  interesting  as  it  is  probably  the 
first  contribution  to  vital  statistics  ever  prepared  in 
Chicago. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  little  town  did  not  soon  forget 


Washington,  1840.     This  appears  to  he  the  first  of  the  brilliant  series  of 
publications  issued  from  the  Surgeon  General's  office  ;  and  I  am  indebted 
for  this,  also,  to  the  kindness  of  Assistant  Surgeon  John  S.Billings,  U.  S. 
Army. 
*  Abstract  exhibiting  principal  diseases  at  Fort  Dearborn  for  ten  years: 


Years 

1829. 

1830. 
90 

1831. 

1833. 

1834. 
91 

1835. 
96 

1836. 

Totals. 

Mean  Strength 

91 

92 

104 

104 

668 

Diseases: 
Intermittent  Fever.. 

17 

18 
15 

1 

8 
22 

3 
10 

1 
12 
15 

1 
1 
1 
9 

19 
1 

32 
2 

19 
5 

31 
2 

136 
26 

2 

Diseases  of  Respiratory  Organs.. 

11 

30 

2 

16 
19 
4 
12 

10 
69 

22 

84 

3 

3 

i 

2 
10 

14 
53 

5 
10 

4 
20 
137 

23 
42 

1 
15 

2 

7 
14 

8 
15 

89 
809 

Diseases  of  Brain  and  Nervous  System.. 
Rheumatic  Affections 

9 

3 

3 

10 

7 

9 
41 
11 
26 

51 

7 

Wounds  and  Injuries 

Ebriety 

All  other  Diseases - 

57 
128 
29 

5 

2 

90 

Totals 

118 

119 

30 

193 

185 

160 

93S 

The  post  was  unoccupied  during  the  year  1832,  and  abandoned  in  1840. 


23 


the  ravages  of  the  epidemic  which  had  visited  them. 
After  a  year  had  elapsed,  the  boatman  who  paddled  up 
the  river  in  his  dug-out  canoe,  could  perceive  the  ends 
of  the  bark  coffins*  projecting  from  the  sand  hills  on  the 
right  bank,  and  even  occasionally  note  their  exposed 
contents. 

The  next  medical  incumbent  at  the  fort  was  Dr.  Philip 
Maxwell,  f  who  was  born  at  Guilford,  Windham  county, 
Vt,  on  the  3d  of  April,  1799.  He  studied  medicine  with 
Dr.  Knott  of  New  York  City,  but  took  his  degree  in  one 
of  the  Medical  Universities  of  his  native  State.:}:  He  com- 
menced the  practice  of  his  profession  in  Sackett's 
Harbor,  New  York,  but  temporarily  abandoned  it  when 
elected  a  member  of  the  State  Legislature.  In  the  year 
1832,  he  was  appointed  an  Assistant  Surgeon  in  the  U. 
S.  Army,  and  was  first  placed  on  duty  in  Green  Bay, 
Wisconsin.  He  was  ordered  to  report  at  Fort  Dearborn 
on  the  3rd  day  of  February,  1833,  and  arrived  here  on  the 
15th  of  the  next  month,  remaining  until  official  orders 
were  received  for  the  discontinuance  of  the  post,  on  the 
28th  of  December,  1836.  During  the  time  in  which  he 
was  on  duty  in  camp  at  Wisconsin,  he  was  so  impressed 
with  the  beauty  of  the  country  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Geneva  Lake,  that  he  subsequently  purchased  the  entire 
township,  and  it  is  now  the  seat  of  the  elegant  homestead 
of  his  family  descendants.  He  was  promoted  to  the 
Surgeoncy,  July  7,  1838,  and  subsequently  served  with 
Gen.  Zachary  Taylor,  at  Baton  Rouge,  and  on  the  St. 
John's  river  in  Florida.  Like  Dr.  Harmon,  he  also 
became  a  civil  practitioner  in  Chicago  after  resigning  his 
commission,   and  from  1845  to  1855,  was  in  partnership 

*  These  are  erroneously  reported  as  "  uncoffined,"  in  The  History  of 
Illinois  from  1673  to  1873,  by  Alexander  Davisson  and  Bernard  Stuv6, 
Springfield,  111. ,  1874.  It  is  probably  true,  however,  that  the  sepulture 
was  often  as  hasty  and  informal  as  there  described 

f  The  information  given  above  has  been  obtained  through  the  kindness 
of  his  son-in-law,  Mr.  J.  C  Walter,  of  Chicago. 

X  The  names  of  these  institutions,  with  the  date  of  their  foundation,  will 
be  found  in  a  note  upon  page  14. 


24 

with  Dr.  Brockholst  McVickar,  who  is  still  engaged  in 
the  practice  of  medicine  in  this  city. 

Dr.  Maxwell  had  such  a  physique  as  One  can  admire 
to-day  in  some  of  the  older  of  our  army  officers.  He 
was  straight  and  portly  in  figure,  six  feet  and  two  inches 
in  height,  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  pounds  in 
weight.  For  all  this,  according  to  Mr.  B.  F.  Taylor,  who 
has  drawn  several  pictures  of  early  Chicago  in  his  graphic 
and  entertaining  style.  "  his  step  was  as  light  as  that  of 
a  wisp  of  a  girl."  Judge  Caton  still  remembers  his 
appearance  in  the  year  1836,  when  engaged  in  dancing  at 
a  ball  dressed  in  full  regimentals  with  epaulets.  On 
this  occasion  his  partner  was  one  of  the  servant-maids 
of  his  host.  Whether  this  occurred  through  inadver- 
tence or  in  consequence  of  the  well-known  scarcity  of 
ladies  in  the  early  days  on  the  frontier,  may  not  perhaps 
be  determined.  Hoffman  is  also  supposed  to  refer  to 
Dr.  Maxwell  in  his  characteristic  account  of  one  of  the 
first  balls  given  in  Chicago,  when  he  describes  "the 
golden  aiguilette  of  a  handsome  surgeon,  flapping  in 
unison   with   the  glass  beads  upon  a  scrawny  neck  of 

fifty."* 

Dr.  Maxwell  died  on  the  5  th  of  November,  1859,  aged 
60  years.  His  name  will  ever  be  honored  in  Chicago  as 
the'  second  in  its  line  of  medical  succession  ;  and  his 
portrait  may  still  be  seen  with  those  of  the  twelve  gen- 
tlemen who  are  counted  among  its  oldest  residents. "f 

Lono-  before  Dr.  Maxwell  settled  in  private  practice, 
the  development  of  the  town  had  induced  other  physi- 
cians to  engage  in  professional  business  within  its  limits. 
This  development,  however,  was  at  first  feeble  and  pro- 
tracted. At  the  time  of  the  sale  of  land  by  the  commis- 
sioners in  1880,  the  town  lots,  eighty  by  one  hundred 

*  Winter  in  the  West.     Charles  Fenno  Hoffman.     1834. 

f  This  picture  was  taken  by  the  photographer,  A.  Hesler,  in  1856.  It 
includes  the  faces  of  Wm.  B.  Ogden,  the  first  mayor  of  Chicago,  J.  H. 
Kinzie,  Mark  Beaubien,  Geo.  W.  Dole,  Jacob  Russell,  B.  W.  Raymond, 
G.  S.  Hubbard,  Jno.  P.  Chapin,  Philip  Maxwell,  Wm.  B.  Egan,  and 
others. 


25 

and  sixty  feet,  sold  for  between  forty  and  sixty  dollars. 
In  the  year  1832.  the  assessment  for  taxes  amounted  to 
but  $357.78  ;  and  the  first  public  improvement  was  an 
estray  pen,  erected  on  the  site  of  the  present  Court  House 
at  an  expense  of  twelve  dollars.  Not  many  vessels  had 
,  entered  the  harbor,  since  the  schooner  Marengo,  foremost 
of  a  mighty  fleet,  floated  into  the  river  from  Detroit  in 
1831.  *  It  was  not  indeed  till  the  year  1834,  that  one 
could  see  any  arrangement  of  houses  in  such  an  order 
as  to  form  a  street.  And  yet,  at  that  date,  there  was  a 
marked  increase  in  the  population,  according  to  the 
figures  given  in  a  Gazetteer  of  the  State,  then  published,  f 
It  was  estimated  that  there  were  one  thousand  inhabitants 
of  the  town — an  increase  of  nearly  eight  hundred  since 
the  preceding  year.  There  were  "three  houses  for 
public  worship,  an  academy,  an  infant  and  other 
schools,  twenty-five  or  thirty  stores,  some  of  them 
doing  a  large  business,  several  taverns,  and  a  printing 
office,  "t 

Of  the  physicians  who  succeeded  those  heretofore 
noticed,  space  forbids  much  more  than  a  passing  mention. 
In  an  address  delivered  before  the  Rock  River  Medical 
Society,  at  the  time  of  its  organization,  §  Dr.  Josiah  C. 
Goodhue  spoke  as  follows:  "Dr.  Harmon  was  tbe 
pioneer  among  the  medical  faculty  of  this  corner  of 
Illinois  ;  Dr.  Kimberly  was  the  second ;  then  came  Dr. 
Jno.  T.  Temple ;  Dr.  Clark  next ;  Drs.  Egan,  Eldridge 
and  myself  soon  followed,  at  about  the  same  time.  This 
brings  us  to  the  spring  of  1834,  when  a  perfect  flood 
of  emigration  poured  in,  and  with  it  a  sprinkling  of 
doctors.  Prior  to  1840,  nine-tenths  of  all  the  physicians 
who  had  located  themselves  in  this  region,  had  done  so 
with  reference  to  pursuing  agriculture,  and  with  the 
avowed  intention  of  abandoning  medical  practice  ;  most 

*  See  Reynolds'  Sketches,  op.  cit. 

f  A  Gazetteer  of  Illinois ;  J.  M.  Peck,  Jacksonville,  1834. 

%  The  Chicago  Democrat — established  by  Jobn  Calhoun. 

§  Illinois  and  Indiana  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal,  Vol.  2,  p.  260. 


26 

of  whom,  either  from  the  necessities  of  the  case,  or  from 
finding  more  truth  than  poetry  in  pounding  out  rails, 
resumed  their  profession  and  divided  their  attention 
between  farming  and  medicine."  In  the  last  sentence, 
Dr.  Goodhue  of  course  refers  chiefly  to  practitioners 
settling  in  that  part  of  the  country  where  the  Rock  • 
River  Medical  Society  proposed  to  hold  jurisdiction. 

Of  the  physicians  named  above,  only  one  is  now  living, 
Dr.  Eldridge,  who  resides  at  Naperville,  111.  ;  but  all 
were  more  or  less  known  to  many  of  the  citizens  of 
Chicago  who  have  survived  them.  Dr.  Jno.  T.  Temple, 
who  removed  to  the  city  in  1833,  was  a  graduate  of 
Middlebury  College,  Castleton,  Vt.,  (Dec.  29,  1830),  and 
seems  for  a  time  to  have  done  duty  as  a  volunteer  sur- 
geon of  the  garrison.  So  far  as  is  known,  he  should  be 
credited  with  the  performance  of  the  first  autopsy  made  in 
the  city,  as  well  as  with  the  rendition  of  the  first  medico- 
legal testimony  in  court.  An  Irishman  had  been  indicted 
for  murder  ;  and  Dr.  Temple  was  summoned  to  make  a 
post-mortem  examination  of  the  victim.  The  ease  with 
which  he  separated  by  a  few  skillful  touches  of  his  knife, 
the  bones  concerned  in  the  sterno- clavicular  articulation, 
is  still  remembered  by  those  who  witnessed  the  unu- 
sual spectacle.  The  attorney  for  the  defense,  however, 
on  this  occasion,  succeeded  in  proving  that  his  client 
had  been  guilty  of  manslaughter,  and  in  securing  his 
acquittal  on  the  ground  that  he  was  innocent  of  murder 
as  charged  in  the  indictment !  In  comparing  the  two 
professions,  as  they  here  appear  in  their  representatives, 
it  may  be  fairly  inferred  that  the  anatomical  knowledge 
of  the  expert  was  more  than  equal  to  the  legal  acumen 
of  the  judge ! 

Dr.  Temple,  soon  after,  secured  a  contract  from  the 
Postmaster  General,  Amos  Kendall,  for  carrying  the 
mail  between  Chicago  and  Ottawa.  He  obtained  an 
elegant,  thorough-brace  post  carriage  from  Detroit,  which 
was  shipped  to  this  port  via  the  lakes,  and,  on  the  1st 
of  January,  1834,  drove  the  first  mail  coach  with  his  own 


27 

hand  from  this  city  to  the  end  of  the  route  for  which  he 
had  received  a  contract.  On  this  first  trip,  lie  was  ac- 
companied by  the  Hon.  Jno.  D.  Caton,  to  whom  I  am 
greatly  indebted  for  many  of  these  details.  The  demand 
for  this  accommodation  could  not  then  have  been  very 
great,  as  there  was  no  mail  matter  for  transportation 
in  the  bag  carried  on  this  first  trip  !  * 

Dr.  William  Bradshaw  Egan  was  born  "on  the  banks 
of  the  beautiful  Lake  of  Killarney,"  September  28,  1808, 
and  was  the  second  cousin  of  Daniel  0'  Connell,  whose 
name  has  already  appeared  in  these  pages.  His  medical 
studies  were  begun  with  Dr.  McGuire,  a  surgeon  in  the 
Lancashire  collieries,  but  were  also  pursued  in  London 
and  in  the  Dublin  Lying-in-Hospital,  f  After  his  arrival 
in  this  country,  he  was  licensed  as  a  physician  by  the 
Medical  Board  of  the  State  of  New  Jersey,  in  the  spring 
of  1830,  and  began  his  professional  career  in  Newark 
and  New  York,  having  been  associated  in  the  latter  city, 
with  Prof.  McNeven  and  Dr.  Busche.  Here  also  he  was 
married  to  Miss  Emeline  M.  Babbatt,  who  accompanied 
him  to  Chicago  in  the  fall  of  1833.  In  the  year  1846,  he 
purchased  for  three  dollars  per  acre,  the  beautiful  prop- 
erty in  the  West  Division  of  the  city,  comprising  three 
and  one-half  acres,  which  is  to-day  the  residence  of  his 
family ;  and  also  laid  out  his  farm — Egandale  Park,  on 
the  Lake  Shore,  about  six  miles  distant  from  the  Court 
House.  At  one  time  he  was  also  in  possession  of  the 
land  upon  which  the  Tremont  House  now  stands.  During 
the  sessions  of  1853-1:,  he  was  a  member  of  the  lower 
house  of  the  State  Legislature  ;  and  also  during  his  life- 
time served  as  recorder  of  the  city  and  county. 

Dr.  Egan  was,  as  has  been  often  remarked,  a  perfect 
specimen  of  the  "fine  old  Irish  gentleman."  He  had  a 
noble  presence  and  a  commanding  figure  ;  but  that  which 
especially   attracted   his  associates,    was  his  exuberant 

*  Dr.  Temple  is  said  to  be  now  living  in  St.  Louis,  and  engaged  in 
homoeopathic  praciice. 

f  Chicago  Magazine,  Vol.  1,  No.  3  ;  May,  1857. 


28 

fancy,  his  sparkling  wit  and  his  keen  perception  and 
graphic  delineation  of  the  ludicrous. 

He  not  only  established  an  excellent  professional  repu- 
ation  in  Chicago,  but  was  much  esteemed  socially  ;  not 
more  so,  however,  than  his  wife,  whose  graces  of  person 
and  character  were  the  admiration  of  the  circle  in  which 
they  both  moved.  Mr.  Joseph  Grant  Wilson,  in  some 
sketches  recently  published  in  Appleton'  s  Journal,  de- 
scribes the  doctor,  as  he  once  appeared  after  the  girth 
of  his  saddle  had  given  way  during  a  wolf  hunt,  and 
his  full-blooded  Kentucky  racer  had  left  him:  "standing 
on  the  prairie,  a  large  fur  cap  on  his  head,  an  enormous 
Scotch  plaid  cloak  (purchased  at  the  '  store '  of  Mr. 
Gr.  S.  Hubbard)  belted  around  his  Brobdignagian  waist, 
and  shod  with  buffalo  overshoes."  It  is  of  Dr.  Egan 
that  the  story  is  told  which  has  lately  been  revived  and 
gone  the  rounds  of  the  medical  press.  He  had  engaged 
extensively  in  the  purchase  and  sale  of  real  estate,  the 
conditions  of  transfer  at  that  day  being  generally  de- 
pendent on  what  was  known  as  "canal  time."  It  is 
said  that  the  doctor  having  been,  on  one  occasion,  asked 
by  a  lady  who  was  his  patient,  how  she  should  take  the 
medicine  ordered  for  her,  the  response  was  :  "a  quarter 
down  and  the  balance  in  one,  two  and  three  years"  ! 
At  the  time  of  the  first  breaking  of  ground  for  the  con- 
struction of  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal,  on  the  4th 
of  July,  1836,  Dr.  Egan  was  selected  to  deliver  the  ora- 
tion ;  and  this  is  only  one  of  several  evidences  of  his 
great  popularity.  We  find  the  beauty  of  his  garden 
and  his  genial  hospitality  extolled  in  complimentary 
terms  in  a  work  which  appeared  a  few  days  before 
the  date  of  his  death. *  This  event  occurred  in 
1856. 

Dr.  Josiah  C.  G-oodhue  came  to  Chicago  directly  from 
Canada,  but  was  the  son  of  an  American  physician,  the 
first  president  of  the  Berkshire  County  Medical  College, 

*  Summer  "Rambles  in  the  West.     Mrs.  Ellet.     New  York.     1853. 


29 

of  Pittsfield,  Mass.*  He  enjoyed  a  very  large  and 
lucrative  practice  while  residing  in  this  city,  but  subse- 
quently removed  to  Rockford,  111.,  where  he  died  later 
in  consequence  of  an  accident.  Drs.  Stuart  and  Lord 
were  among  the  physicians  first  succeeding  those  enu- 
merated above — the  former  having  enjoyed  the  reputa- 
tion of  being  the  Beau  Brummel  of  the  profession,  and 
the  latter  having  distinguished  himself  by  securing  a 
patent  for  a  labor-saving  pill  machine. 

Dr.  John  H.  Foster  came  to  Chicago  in  1835,  and  died 
here  on  the  18th  day  of  May,  1874. 

It  would  be  unjust  in  this  connection  to  leave  unmen- 
tioned  the  name  of  the  first  druggist  in  Chicago.  Mr. 
Philo  Carpenter  was  a  native  of  Massachusetts,  born  on 
the  27th  day  of  February,  1805.  In  the  year  1827,  he 
commenced  the  study  of  medicine  which  he  prosecuted 
for  two  or  three  years  under  the  direction  of  Dr.  Amatus 
Robbins,  of  Troy,  New  York.  He  arrived  in  Chicago 
in  the  month  of  July,  1832,  just  at  the  time  when  the 
cholera- stricken  troops  under  the  command  of  Gen 
Scott,  had  been  transported  to  the  fort.  Mr.  Carpenter 
had  abandoned  his  medical  studies  in  order  to  pursue 
the  more  congenial  business  of  an  apothecary,  but  in 
the  present  emergency,  he  attended  many  cases  of 
cholera,  and  rendered  an  assistance  which  was  very 
highly  appreciated.  Soon  after,  he  opened  a  drug  and 
general  store  in  a  small  log  cabin  near  the  eastern  end  of 
the  present  Lake  Street  bridge,  from  which,  as  his  business 
increased,  he  removed  into  a  more  pretentious  frame 
building.  In  the  spring  of  1833,  Dr.  Edmund  Stoughton 
Kimberly,  of  Troy,  N.  Y.,  alluded  to  in  Dr.  Goodhue's 
address,  in  company  with  Mr.  Peter  Pruyne,  opened  a 
second  druggists'  establishment.  Dr.  Kimberly  was 
registered  in  the  year  1833,  among  those  who  voted  for 
the  incorporation   of   the   town.      He  died   at   his  late 

*  Extracts  from  Journal  of  Rev.  Jeremiah  Porter  ;  recently  published 
in  the  Chicago  Times. 


30 

residence  in  Lake  County,   Illinois,  Oct.  25,  1874,  aged 
72  years. 

Without  pausing  to  comment  further  upon  the  history 
of  the  medical  gentlemen  who  rapidly  succeeded  those 
already  mentioned,  I  hasten  to  present  a  brief  sketch  of 
the  remarkable  man,  who,  perhaps  to  a  greater  extent 
than  any  of  his  professional  peers  in  Chicago,  achieved 
a  national  reputation.  Through  the  kindness  of  the 
Hon.  Edward  Huntington,  of  Rome,  N.  Y.,  I  have  ob- 
tained access  to  some  notes  prepared  on  the  subject  by 
Calvert  Comstock,  Esq.,  from  which  the  subjoined  details 
have  been  in  part  supplied. 

Daniel  Brainard  was  born  on  the  fifteenth  day  of  May, 
1812,  in  the  town  of  Western,*  Oneida  Co.,  K  Y.  His 
father,  Jepthai  Brainard, f  was  a  farmer  in  comfort- 
able pecuniary  circumstances  and  of  excellent  character, 
while  his  mother  was  a  most  exemplary  woman,  whose 
influence  was  deeply  impressed  upon  her  children,  and 
doubtless  did  much  in  awakening  the  genius  and  inspiring 
the  aims  of  the  son  in  his  early  life.  He  was  given  a 
good  common  school  and  academic  education,  which 
laid  the  foundation  for  that  exact  and  exhaustive 
method  of  investigation  which  characterized  his  subse- 
quent professional  studies.  Having  chosen  the  profes- 
sion of  medicine,  he  entered  the  office  of  Dr.  Harold 
H.  Pope,  a  distinguished  physician  and  surgeon  of 
Rome,  N.  Y.,  pursuing  his  studies  also  in  Whitesboro, 
and  New  York  City,  and  obtaining  his  degree  of 
Jefferson  College,  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  in  the  year  1834. 

*  In  some  biographical  notices,  the  place  of  his  birth  is  erroneously- 
stated  to  be  Whitesboro,  in  the  same  county. 

|  In  a  Genealogy  of  the  Brainard  Family  by  the  late  Bev.  David  D. 
Field,  1857,  it  appears  that  the  first  individual  who  bore  the  name  in 
America,  was  a  Daniel  Brainard,  of  Haddam,  Ct.  (1662).  But,  according 
to  Mr.  Hurlbut,  in  whose  possession  the  volume  is,  in  spite  of  the  indus- 
trious labors  of  Mr.  Field,  the  materials  it  contains  are  so  wretchedly 
arranged,  misplaced  and  mystified,  that  the  work  is  of  comparatively  little 
value  ;  and  it  is  almost  impossible  to  trace  with  any  clearness  the  line  of 
ancestry,  from  the  records  there  given. 


31 

During  this  preparatory  career  he  delivered  some 
lectures  of  a  scientific  character  in  Fairfield,  N.  Y., 
and  in  the  course  of  the  two  years  succeeding  his 
admission  to  the  profession,  he  delivered  another  series 
of  lectures  on  anatomy  and  physiology  in  the  Oneida 
Institute.  He  commenced  the  practice  of  medicine  in 
Whitesboro,  IN".  Y.,  whither  his  family  had  removed  from 
the  farm  in  Western,  on  account  of  the  educational  advan- 
tages afforded  in  the  former  place.  Here  he  remained  for 
some  two  years  in  partnership  with  Dr.  R.  S.  Sykes,*  a 
gentleman  who  had  directed  his  medical  studies  before 
his  departure  from  the  village. 

Henry  H.  Hurlbut,  Esq.,  of  Chicago,  who  has  kindly 
furnished  several  facts  of  interest  in  this  connection,- 
informs  'me  that  he  was  recently  shown  by  a  lady 
a  small  quarto  volume  which  affords  a  glimpse  of 
the  literary  annals  of  the  little  village.  It  is  the  record 
of  proceedings  of  the  "Mseonian  Circle" — composed 
of  young  ladies  and  gentlemen — and  contains  the  sig- 
nature of  Dr.  Brainard  as  an  officer  of  the  Club  in  the 
autumn  of  1 834.  Among  the  names  of  members  appears 
that  also  of  Miss  F.  M.  Berry,  the  authoress  of  the 
"  Widow  Bedott  Papers." 

Soon  after  this,  Dr.  Brainard  determined  to  remove 
to  the  West.  His  advent  and  earliest  history  in  Chicago, 
are  best  described  in  the  language  of  the  Hon.  J.  D. 
Caton,  to  whom  I  have  already  had  occasion  to  express 
my  obligations  for  valuable  aid  in  the  preparation  of 
this  sketch  : 

"  About  the  first  of  September,  1835,  Dr.  Brainard 
rode  up  to  my  office,  wearing  pretty  seedy  clothes  and 
mounted  on  a  little  Indian  pony.  He  reported  that  he 
was  nearly  out  of  funds,  and  asked  my  advice  as  to 
the  propriety  of  commencing  practice  here.  We  had 
been  professional  students  together  in  Rome,  N".  Y., 
when  he  was  in  the  office  of  Dr.  Pope  there.  I  knew 
him  to  have  been  an  ambitious  and  studious  young  man, 

*  Dr.  Sykes  is  said  to  be  now  living  in  Chicago,  aged  80  years. 


32 

of  great  firmness  and  ability,  and  did  not  donbt  that  the 
three  years  since  I  had  seen  him,  had  been  profitably 
spent  in  acquiring  a  knowledge  of  his  profession.  I 
advised  him  to  go  to  the  Indian  camp  where  the  Potta- 
wattomies  were  gathered,  preparatory  to  starting  for 
their  new  location  west  of  the  Mississippi  river,  sell 
his  pony,  take  a  desk  or  rather  a  little  table  in  my  office, 
and  put  his  shingle  by  the  side  of  the  door,  promising 
to  aid  him  as  best  I  could  in  building  up  a  business. 
During  the  first  year,  the  doctor  s  practice  did  not  enter 
those  circles  of  which  he  was  most  ambitious.  Indeed  it 
was  mostly  confined  to  the  poorest  of  the  population,  and 
he  anxiously  looked  for  a  door  which  should  give  him 
admission  to  a  better  class  of  patients.  While  he  an- 
swered every  call,  whether  there  was  a  prospect  of  remu- 
neration or  not,  *  he  felt  that  he  was  qualified  to  attend 
those  who  were  able  to  pay  him  liberally  for  his  ser- 
vices. At  length  the  door  was  opened.  A  schooner 
was  wrecked  south  of  the  town,  on  which  were  a  man 
and  his  wife,  who  escaped  with  barely  their  clothes  on 
their  backs.  They  were  rather  simple  people,  and  be- 
longed to  the  lowest  walks  of  life.  They  started  for  the 
country  on  foot,  begging  their  way,  and,  when  distant 
some  twelve  miles,  encountered  a  party  of  men  with  a 
drove  of  horses,  one  of  whom  pretended  he  was  a  sheriff, 
and  arrested  them  for  improper  purposes.  When  they 
were  set  at  liberty,  they  returned  to  the  town,  and  came 
to  me  for  legal  advice,  the  woman  being  about  five  months 
advanced  in  pregnancy.  I  commenced  a  suit  for  the 
redress  of  their  grievances,  and  the  doctor  took  an 
active  interest  in  their  welfare.  He  procured  for  them 
a  small  house  on  the  North  Side,  and  made  personal 
appeals  to  all  the  ladies  in  the  neighborhood,  for  provision 
for  their  needs.  Mrs.  John  H.  Kinzie  become  particu- 
larly interested  in  their  case,  and  paid  frequent  visits  to 
the  cabin  with  other  ladies.     The  nervous  system  of  the 

*  Dr.  J.  W.  Freer  informs  me  that  this  was  true  of  Dr.  Brainard  in  the 
height  of  his  prosperity. 


33 

woman  had  been  greatly  shattered,  and  a  miscarriage  was 
constantly  apprehended.  The  doctor  was  unremitting 
in  his  attentions,  and  finally  carried  her  through  her 
confinement  with  marked  success,  exhibiting  to  the- 
ladies  who  had  taken  so  much  interest  in  the  patient,  a 
fine  living  child.  This  was  the  long  desired  opportu- 
nity, and  it  did  not  fail  to  produce  its  results.  Dr. 
Brainard  immediately  became  famous.  His  disinterested 
sympathy,  his  goodness  of  heart,  his  skillful  treatment 
and  his  marked  success,  were  now  the  subject  of 
comment  in  all  circles.  At  6my  request,  Dr.  G-oodhue 
also  visited  the  woman — as  I  desired  to  secure  his  addi- 
tional testimony  in  the  case — and  he  too  became  very 
favorably  impressed  with  the  talents  and  acquirements  of 
the  young  practitioner,  and  extended  to  him  a  helping 
and  efficient  hand. 

"During  the  winter  of  1837-38,  Dr.  Brainard  first  com- 
municated to  me  his  project  looking  to  the  foundation  of 
Rush  College. 

"In  1838,  a  laborer  on  the  canal  near  Lockport,  frac- 
tured his  thigh,  and  before  union  had  been  completely- 
effected,  he  came  to  Chicago  on  foot,  where  he  found 
himself  unable  to  walk  further  and  quite  destitute.  He 
was  taken  to  the  poor-house  where  he  rapidly  grew 
worse,  the  limb  becoming  excessively  cedematous.  A 
council  of  physicians  was  summoned,  consisting  of  Drs. 
Brainard,  Maxwell,  Groodhue,  Egan,  and  perhaps  one  or 
two  others.  All  were  agreed  as  to  the  necessity  of  ampu- 
tation, but,  while  Brainard  insisted  that  the  operation 
should  be  performed  at  the  hip  joint,  the  others  urged 
that  removal  below  the  trochanters  would  answer  equally 
well.  The  patient  was  about  twenty-three  years  of  age, 
had  an  excellent  physique,  and  was,  so  far  as  known,  of 
good  habits.  The  operation  was  assigned  to  Brainard, 
and  Goodhue  was  entrusted  with  the  control  of  the  fem- 
oral artery,  as  it  emerges  from  the  pelvis.  This  he  was 
to  accomplish  with  his  thumbs  ;  and  he  had  as  good 
thumbs  as  any  man  I  ever  knew.      The  moment  the 


34 

amputation  was  effected,  Brainard  passed  one  finger  into 
the  medullary  cavity,  and  brought  out  upon  it  a  portion 
of  the  medulla  which,  in  the  process  of  disorganization,  had 
become  black.  As  he  exhibited  it  he  looked  at  Goodhue, 
who  simply  nodded  his  head.  Not  a  word  was  spoken 
by  any  one  'but  the  patient,  and  what  he  said  no  one 
knew.  Brainard  instantly  took  up  the  knife  and  again 
amputated,  this  time  at  the  joint,  after  which  the  wound 
was  dressed.  The  double  operation  occupied  but  a  very 
short  time. 

"  In  about  one  month  the  wound  had  very  nearly  healed, 
only  a  granulating  surface  of  about  three-fourths  of  an 
inch  in  length  at  the  upper  corner  discharged  a  healthy  pus. 
I  was  present  the  last  time  the  wound  was  dressed,  and 
expected  to  see  the  patient  speedily  discharged  as  cured. 
But  that  night  secondary  haemorrhage  occurred,  a  large 
portion  of  the  wound  was  opened  afresh,  and  the  patient 
died  almost  immediately.  At  the  post  mortem  section, 
an  enormous  mass  of  osseous  tubercles  was  removed  from 
the  lungs,  liver  and  heart,  and  a  large,  bony  neoplasm 
was  found  attached  to  the  pelvic  bones,  and  surrounding 
the  femoral  artery,  so  that  the  mouth  of  the  latter 
remained  patulous.  A  similar  deposit,  three  inches  in 
diameter,  had  been  found  about  the  fractured  femur,  and 
when  this  was  sawn  through,  the  line  of  demarcation 
between  the  neoplasm  and  the  true  bone  was  dis- 
tinctly discernible. 

"  The  operation  was  regarded  as  a  success,  and  it  com- 
pletely established  Dr.  Brainard' s  reputation  as  a 
surgeon." 

There  can  be  but  little  doubt  that  a  number  of  ampu- 
tations at  the  hip  joint  must  have  been  performed  in  this 
country  before  the  date  of  the  operation  thus  graphically 
described  by  Judge  Caton,  but  it  is  certain  that  we  have 
records  of  only  two  or  three  of  these  at  the  most.  In  a 
recent  letter,  President  J.  W.  Freer,  of  Rush  College, 
informs  me  that  the  case  referred  to,  was  one  of  enchon- 
droma  of  the  femur,  and  that  the  specimen  it  furnished, 


35 

-adorned  the  museum  of  the  College  until  the  destruction 
of  the  latter  by  fire. 

Some  time  after  Dr.  Brainard's  arrival  in  Chicago,  he 
filled  the  editorial  chair  of  the  Chicago  Democrat,  to 
which  the  Hon.  John  Wentworth  succeeded. 

In  the  year  1839,  Dr.  Brainard  visited  Paris,  where  he 
remained  for  about  two  years  engaged  in  perfecting  him- 
self in  the  details  of  professional  service,  availing  himself 
of  the  advantages  offered  in  the  medical  institutions  of 
that  city,  and  laboring  with  great  assiduity.  On  his 
return,  he  delivered  a  course  of  medical  lectures  in  St. 
Louis,  and  soon  after  perfected  his  plans  for  the  estab- 
lishment and  permanent  foundation  of  Rush  Medical 
College.  The  success  which  attended  the  efforts  of  him- 
self and  his  associates,  not  only  in  this  direction  but  in 
the  publication  of  the  periodical,  of  which  the  present 
Medical  Journal  and  Examinee  is  the  direct  and  legit- 
imate descendant,  is  too  well  known  to  the  profession  at 
large  to  require  comment. 

Dr.  Brainard  revisited  Paris  in  1852,  when  he  was 
accompanied  by  his  wife.  It  was  at  this  time  that  he 
obtained  permission  to  prosecute  his  researches  on  the 
subject  of  poisoned  wounds  by  the  aid  of  experiments 
upon  the  reptiles  in  the  Jardin  des  Plantes.  He  was 
then  made  an  honorary  member  of  the  Societe  de 
Chirurgie  of  Paris,  and  of  the  Medical  Society  of  the 
Canton  of  Geneva.  In  the  year  1854,  he  gained  the  prize 
offered  by  the  St.  Louis  Medical  Society  for  the  presen- 
tation of  his  paper  on  the  Treatment  of  Ununited  Frac- 
tures— the  method  he  then  proposed  having  since  received 
the  endorsement  of  the  entire  profession. 

A  short  time  before  his  death  he  spent  a  day  in  Rome, 
N".  Y.,  with  his  life-long  friend,  Mr.  Comstock,  pleas- 
antly recounting  the  incidents  of  his  foreign  travel, 
expressing  the  greatest  interest  in  the  prosecution  of  his 
work  connected  with  his  lectures  in  the  College,  and 
anticipating  a  return  to  Europe  for  a  third  visit  with  a 
view  to  a  still  more  extended  course  of  investigations. 


36 

At  the  same  time  he  seemed  to  be  impressed  with  a  feel- 
ing that  he  had  not  much  longer  to  live.  In  a  few  weeks- 
from  this  date,  his  friend  *in  Rome  received  the  tele- 
graphic announcement  of  his  death.  He  died  of  cholera,, 
in  the  old  Sherman  Honse  of  Chicago,  on  the  10th  day  of 
October,  1866,  in  the  fifty-fifth  year  of  his  age. 

Dr.  Brainard  was  a  master  of  many  of  the  collateral 
branches  of  medical  science.  He  was  a  botanist  and 
geologist.  He  excelled  also  in  literature,  and  his  contri- 
butions to  medical  periodicals  are  many  of  them  master- 
pieces of  terse,  vigorous  and  lucid  expression.  A  gen- 
eration of  men  who  never  looked  in  his  face  are  yet 
familiar  with  his  features.  He  was  tall  and  vigorous  in 
frame,  with  a  large,  finely-shaped  head,  and  keen,  pene- 
trating eyes.  He  seemed  indeed  to  possess  the  three 
qualities  which  were  considered  in  the  16th  century  to 
be  the  prerequisites  of  a  good  surgeon,  viz.:  "the  eye 
of  a  hawk,  the  hand  of  a  woman,  and  the  heart  of  a  lion." 
Dr.  Brainard' s  name  is  graven  ineff'aceably  upon  the 
annals  of  American  Surgery.  His  successors  may  well 
emulate  his  indomitable  perseverance  in  the  face  of 
apparently  overwhelming  obstacles,  his  unflagging  in- 
dustry, and  the  acquisition  of  the  science  and  skill  which 
perforce  spring  from  these  high  qualities. 

In  the  Lakeside  Annual  Directory  for  1875-6,  is  repro- 
duced mfac  simile  the  first  Directory  ever  issued  in 
Chicago,  dated  1839 — the  original  having  been  obtained 
through  the  courtesy  of  Henry  H.  Hurlbut,  Esq. 

By  referring  to  this,  it  will  be  seen  that  Dr.  Brainard1  s 
name  occurs  with  those  of  Drs.  S.  B.  Gray  and  Betts,  as 
constituting  a  Board  of  Health.  This  Board,  it  is  un- 
necessary to  say,  was  not  organized  under  any  such  law 
as  that  which  provfdes  for  the  Board  of  Health  as  now 
constituted.  Dr.  Charles  V.  Dyer  is  there  registered  as 
City  Physician — he  had  removed  to  the  city  three  years 
before,  in  1835.  Besides  these,  the  Directory  contains 
the  names  of  Dr.  Jno.  Brinkerhoff,  Dr.  Clarke,  Dr.  Levi 
D.  Boone,  Dr.  Eldridge,  Dr.  Edmund  S.  Kimberly,  Dr. 


37 

Merrick,  Dr.  Post,  and  Dr.  J.  Jay  Stuart.  Drs.  Brinker- 
hoff,  Betts,  Post  and  Stuart,  are  known  to  be  now  dead, 
besides  those  whose  decease  has  been  heretofore  noted 
in  these  pages. 

Dr.  Boone,  whose  name  appears  in  the  list,  deserves 
more  than  a  passing  mention.  He  is  the  grand  nephew  of 
the  great  Kentucky  pioneer,  Daniel  Boone,  and  was  born 
on  the  8th  of  December,  1808.  He  studied  medicine  in 
the  Transylvania  University,  came  to  Illinois  in  1829, 
and,  having  volunteered  as  a  private  in  the  Black  Hawk 
war,  was  finally  promoted  to  the  Surgeoncy  of  the  2nd 
Regiment,  3rd  Brigade,  Col.  Jacob  Frye.  Dr.  Boone 
came  to  Chicago  in  1836,  and  still  resides  here,  though 
he  is  now  gradually  withdrawing  from  the  business 
incidental  to  the  management  of  his  estate.* 

The  charter  for  the  incorporation  of  Rush  College  was 
obtained  from  the  Legislature  in  1837,  and  was  the  first 
instrument  issued  for  a  similar  purpose  to  any  educa- 
tional institution  in  the  State  of  Illinois.  The  first 
building  occupied  by  the  Faculty  was  erected  in  the 
year  1844,  after  the  designs  of  Mr.  Van  Osdel.  A  pass- 
ably well- executed  cut  of  this  structure  was  given  in 
the  City  Directory  of  the  ensuing  year.f  The  names  of 
Professors  are  thus  given  :  Daniel  Brainard,  M.D.,  Pro- 
fessor of  Surgery  ;  Austin  Flint,  M.D.,  Professor  of  the 
Institutes  and  Practice  of  Medicine  ;  G.  N.  Fitch,  M.D., 
Professor  of  Obstetrics  and  Diseases  of  Women  and 
Children  ;  J.  V.  Z.  Blaney,  M.D.,  Professor  of  Chemistry 

*  The  Directory  from  which  these  names  have  been  transcribed  was, 
as  might  be  expected,  a  very  incomplete  affair.  Mr.  Fergus,  an  early 
resident  of  Chicago,  has,  with  considerable  labor,  compiled  a  tolerably 
complete  list  of  the  business  men  of  the  town  in  1839,  in  which  are  to  be 
found  the  following  additional  names,  designated  as  "doctors"  :  Zimon 
P.  Haven,  Richard  Murphy,  William  Russell,  D.  S.  Smith,  John  Mark 
Smith,  Simeon  Willard. 

f  Business  Advertiser  and  General  Directory  of  the  City  of  Chicago, 

1845-6.     J.  W.  Norris.     This  volume  is  in  the  valuable  collecfton  of  Mr 

Cooke,  of  Messrs.  Keen,  Cooke  &  Co.,  publishers  of  the  Chicago  Medical 

.  Journal  and  Examiner,   and  I  am  under  obligations  to  him  for  the 

.lac  simile  shown  on  next  page,  of  the  cut  of  the  old  Rush  College. 


38 


and  Pharmacy;  Jno.  McLean,  M.D.,  Professor  of  Ma- 
teria Meclica  and  Therapeutics  ;  and  W.  B.  Herricky 
M.D.,  Professor  of  Anatomy.  Dr.  Herrick  became  sub- 
sequently the  first  President  of  the  Illinois  State  Medical 
Societv. 


The  Fikst  Bush  Medical  College.    (1844). 

Under  the  heading  of  "Physicians  and  Surgeons"  are 
enrolled  twenty-eight  names.  In  addition  to  three  of 
the  professors  named  above,  who  were  residents  of  the 
city,  are  to  be  found  the  names  of  William  Allen,  H.  H. 
Beardsly,  L.  D.  Boone.  Jno.  Brinkerhoff,  S.  S.  Cornell, 
A.  W.  Davisson,  C.  H.  Duck,  C.  V.  Dyer,  J.  W. 
Eldridge,  M.  L.  Knapp,  Philip  Maxwell,  Aaron  Pitney, 
D.  S.  Smith,  and  J.  J.  Stuart. 

The  name  of.  C.  H.  Duck  is  accompanied  by  letters, 
which  purport  that  the  gentleman  was  a  member  of  the 
Royal  College  of  Surgeons,  London;  and  a  card,  dis- 
played in  larger  type  beneath,  advertises  his  gratuitous 
treatment  of  the  indigent  sick  and  lame,  on  Mondays.. 
Wednesdays  and  Saturdays.     This  Duck  appears  to  ex- 


39 


press  himself  in  the  inarticulateness  of  a  quack.  What 
a  commentary  is  here  on  the  public  proclamation  of  pro- 
fessional merit,  and  that  willingness  to  aid  the  needy, 
which  should  be  the  signet  and  seal  of  every  true  char- 
acter, whether  of  the  physician   or  the  layman !     The 


New  Edipice  of  Rush  Medical  College  now  in  Process  or  Erection. 


name  of  the  man  who  appended  the  imposing  letters  to 
his  title,  has  sunk  into  an  obscurity  which  is  interesting 
only  to  the  antiquarian,  while  the  modest  and  unpreten- 
tious youth,  who  entered  Chicago  riding  on  an  Indian 
pony,  has  added  to  his  name  a  lustre  which  no  title 
could  intensify. 

The  name  of  D.  S.  Smith  is  also  accompanied  by  a 
card  which  indicates  his  faith  in  the  doctrines  of 
homoeopathy. 

The  first  number  of  the  Illinois  Medical  and  Surgical 


40 

-Journal  was  issued  in  April,  1844,  under  the  editorial 
management  of  James  V.  Z.  Blaney,  A.M.,  M.D.  Its 
reading  matter  is  contained  in  one  form  of  sixteen  pages, 
just  one-sixth  the  size  of  the  Medical  Jouenal  a:nt> 
Examiner,  as  now  published.  The  very  modest  intro- 
ductory sets  forth  a  fair  ground  for  its  raison  d'etre. 
"We  have  around  us  three  large  States  :  Indiana,  Mich- 
igan and  Illinois — and  two  extensive  territories  :  Wiscon- 
sin and  Iowa — filled  with  medical  men  of  the  highest 
intelligence  and  most  praiseworthy  enterprise,  and  not  a 
single  medical  journal  has  been  previously  issued  in  all 
this  vast  Northwestern  region. ' '  The  number  contains  an 
original  contribution  from  Dr.  Brainard,  on  the  treatment 
of  false  anchylosis  by  extension,  illustrated  by  a  very 
■creditable  wood  cut ;  a  brief  summary  of  progress  in 
practical  medicine,  which  contains  extracts  from  the  2d 
"Vol.  of  Pereira's  Materia  Medica  and  Therapeutics,  the 
8th  No.  of  Braithwaite's  Retrospect,  and  the  American 
Journal  for  January,  1844  ;  and  Bibliographical  Notices 
of  a  Dissector  by  Erasmus  Wilson,  and  An  Anatomical 
Atlas,  by  H.  H.  Smith,  M.D.  ;  to  both  of  these  reviews 
Dr.  Brainard' s  initials  are  appended.  There  are  but  two 
items  of  general  intelligence,  both  clipped  from  the  Med- 
ical News.* 

The  first  meeting  with  a  view  to  the  establishment  of 
the  Chicago  Medical  College,  was  held  in  the  office  of 
Drs.  David  Rutter  and  Ralph  N.  Isham,  on  the  12th  day 
of  March,  1859. f  Drs.  Hosmer  A.  Johnson  and  Ed- 
mund Andrews  were  then  present,  together  with  the 
gentlemen  first  named.  After  a  temporary  organization 
had  been  effected,  it  was  determined  to  organize  a  Med- 

*  This  volume  is  in  the  possession  of  Dr.  J.  Adams  Allen,  who  has  been 
so  long  identified  with  the  fortunes  of  this  Journal.  For  a  history  of  the 
thorny  reverses  out  of  which  has  been  plucked  its  flower  of  success,  con- 
sult Dr.  Allen's  interesting  sketch  in  the  January  No.  for  1874. 

f  History  of  the  Chicago  Medical  College — An  Introductory  Lecture 
to  the  College  Session  of  1870-71.  H.  A.  Johnson,  A.M.,  M.D.,  Chicago, 
1870. 


41 

ical  Faculty,  on  the  basis  of  a  proposition  made  by  the 
trustees  of  the  Lind  University,  and  an  agreement  ■  to 
"that  effect  was  signed,  both  by  the  Executive  Committee 
of  the  University  and  by  the  physicians  who  were  there 
assembled. 

The  first  faculty  of  the  new  medical  school  was  consti- 
tuted as  follows  :  David  Rutter,  M.D.,  Emeritus  Profes- 
sor of  Obstetrics  and  Diseases  of  Women  and  Children  ; 
H.  A.  Johnson,  M.D.,  Professor  of  Physiology  and 
Histology;  E.  Andrews,  M.D.,  Professor  of  the  Princi- 
ples and  Practice  of  Surgery;  R.  N.  Isham,  M.D., 
Professor  of  Surgical  Anatomy  and  the  Operations  of 
Surgery  ;  N.  S.  Davis,  M.D.,  Professor  of  the  Principles 
and  Practice  of  Medicine  ;  W.  H.  Byford,  M.D.,  Pro- 
fessor of  Midwifery  and  Diseases  of  Women  and  Child- 
ren ;  J.  H.  Hollister,  M.D.,  Professor  of  Physiology  and 
Histology ;  Dr.  Mahla,  Professor  of  Chemistry ;  M.  K. 
Taylor,  M.D.,  Professor  of  General  Pathology  and  Pub- 
lic Hygiene  ;  Titus  DeVille,  M.D.,  Professor  of  Descrip- 
tive Anatomy ;  and  H.  Gh  Spafford,  Esq. ,  Professor  of 
Medical  Jurisprudence. 

The  first  course  of  lectures  was  given  in  Lind' s  Block, 
on  Market,  between  Randolph  and  Lake  streets,  the  class 
consisting  of  but  thirty-three  members,  of  whom  nine 
received,  at  the  commencement  exercises,  the  degree  of 
Doctor  of  Medicine.  In  the  summer  of  1863,  arrange- 
ments were  perfected  for  the  erection  of  the  building  on 
the  corner  of  State  and  Twenty-second  streets,  which 
was  occupied  by  the  Chicago  Medical  College  up  to  the 
time  of  its  removal,  in  1870,  to  the  present  elegant  and 
commodious  structure  on  the  corner  of  Prairie  avenue 
and  Twenty- sixth  street,  in  close  proximity  to  Mercy 
Hospital.  During  the  previous  year,  this  institution  had 
Ibecome  the  Medical  Department  of  the  Northwestern 
University. 

On  the  25th  day  of  April,  1868,  the  Faculty  arranged 
the  curriculum  of  the  College,  so  that  three  consecutive 
courses   of  lectures  should  be  given,   with  a   separate 


42 


group  of  studies  for  each  of  the  three  years  of  pupilage. 
The  honor  which  is  due  the  Chicago  Medical  College  for  the 
inauguration  of  this  scheme  has  been  persistently  ignored 
by  some  of  the  Medical  Schools  in  the  East.  It  is  cer- 
tainly gratifying  to  note  that  this  step  in  the  direction  of 
that  reform  in  medical  education  which  is  now  felt  to  be 
imperatively  demanded,  was  first  taken  in  Chicago.  It  is- 
now  a  matter  of  record,  and  the  impartial  historian  who- 
shall  write  the  history  of  medicine  in  the  United  States, 
cannot  fail  to  do  justice,  in  this  particular,  to  the  young- 
claimant  of  the  West. 


The  Chicago  Medical  College  Building. 

The  medical  board  of  Mercy  Hospital  is  constituted 
by  the  faculty  of  the  adjacent  college.  The  first  named 
institution  originated  in  consequence  of  a  charter  obtained 
from  the  State  legislature,  by  Dr.  John  Evans  and  others, 
for  the  establishment  of  the  "Illinois  General  Hospital 
of  the  Lakes."  This  instrument  named  Dr.  Evans  and 
Judges  Dickey  and  Skinner  as  Trustees.  Nothing,  how- 
ever, had  been  accomplished  toward  raising  funds  or 
establishing  the  hospital  until  the  summer  of  1850,  when 
Prof.  N.  S.  Davis  gave  a  course  of  six  lectures  on  the 
sanitary  condition  of  the  city,  and  the  means  for  its  im- 
provement ;  notice  having  been  previously  given  that  the- 


43 

proceeds  would  be  devoted  to  hospital  purposes.  One? 
hundred  dollars  were  thus  realized  ;  and  this  sum  was 
subsequently  increased  by  the  donations  of  a  few  private 
individuals.  Twelve  beds  were  at  once  purchased  and 
placed  in  the  old  Lake  House  Hotel. 

The  hospital  was  then  opened  for  the  accommodation 
of  patients,  nominally  under  the  supervision  of  the  trus- 
tees named  above,  Prof.  Davis  having  charge  of  the 
medical,  and  Prof.  Brainard,  of  the  surgical  patients. 
The  beds  were  well  filled  and  supplied  the  means  for 
daily  clinical  instruction  during  the  fall  and  winter  of 
1850-1.  It  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  Sisters  of  Mercy 
in  the  spring  of  1851,  who  enlarged  its  accommodations, 
and  subsequently  changed  its  name  to  Mercy  Hospital. 
The  elegant  edifice  which  they  now  possess,  is  capable  of 
accommodating  five  hundred  patients  ;  and  it  may  be 
added  that  from  the  date  of  the  leasing  of  the  old  apart- 
ments containing  twelve  beds,  to  the  present — a  term  of 
twenty-five  years — Prof.  N.  S.  Davis  has  continuously 
done  service  in  its  wards,  as  a  physician  and  clinical 
teacher. 

The  purpose  of  this  sketch,  though  but  imperfectly 
fulfilled,  has  been  accomplished,  so  far  as  to  call  attention 
to  the  character  and  circumstances  of  the  early  medical 
practitioners  of  Chicago.  Many  of  those  who  im- 
mediately succeeded  them  are  still  living  in  our  midst, 
and  retain  a  recollection  of  events  that  have  transpired 
in  their  time,  which  it  would  be  vain  to  attempt  to  record 
in  these  pages.  I  conclude  with  a  brief  outline  of  events 
connected  with  the  organization  of  the  County  Hospital, 
located  in  this  city,  not  only  because  it  is  at  present  the 
largest  of  our  public  charities,  but  also  because  the 
recent  erection  of  a  new  building  for  its  accommodation^ 
seems  to  mark  an  era  in  its  history. 

During  the  cholera  epidemic  of  1854-5,  the  city  author- 
ities established  a  cholera  hospital  on  the  corner  of  18th 
and  Arnold  streets — the  precise  location  of  the  building 
now  occupied  as  a  county  hospital.     The  frame  build- 


44 

nigs  then  erected  were  cheaply  built,  and  intended 
simply  to  meet  immediate  necessities.  Dr.  Brock. 
McVickar,  who  was  then  the  City  Physician,  began  at 
once  to  urge  the  Board  of  Health  to  erect  a  permanent 
oity  hospital.  His  importunity  caused  a  movement  to 
take  form,  which  resulted  in  the  erection  of  the  city 
hospital  building,  which  is  at  present  used  for  a  county 
nospital. 

When  completed,  in  the  summer  of  1856,  the  medical 
staff,  as  organized  by  the  Board  of  Health,  was  consti- 
tuted of  two  bodies — the  so-called  Allopathic  and  Homoe- 
opathic Boards — the  former  consisting  of  Drs.  Geo.  K. 
Amerman,  De  Laskie  Miller,  Jos.  P.  Ross,  Geo.  Schloet- 
-zer,  Ralph  ~N.  Isham,  and  Wm.  Wagner.  The  members 
of  the  regular  profession  held  an  indignation  meeting 
soon  after,  in  consequence  of  the  mongrel  character  of 
this  organization  ;  and  the  newly  appointed  medical  staff 
also  held  several  meetings.  Hon.  Jno.  Wentworth,  then 
Mayor  of  Chicago,  and  ex-officio  member  of  the  Board 
-of  Health,  also  endeavored  to  organize  a  board  of  reputa- 
ble practitioners,  but  failed  in  the  effort. 

It  then  became  evident  that,  the  cholera  epidemic  hav- 
ing subsided,  and  the  city  being  charged  merely  with  the 
care  of  those  affected  with  contagious  and  infectious 
diseases,  there  were  no  patients  for  whom  the  city  was 
obliged  to  provide  !  The  care  of  the  sick  poor,  both  of 
the  city  and  county,  devolved  upon  the  latter.  Thus  the 
building  remained  unoccupied  for  a  year  or  two. 

In  1858,  Drs.  Geo.  K.  Amerman  and  J.  P.  Ross  asso- 
ciated themselves  with  four  other  medical  gentlemen,  and 
leased  the  building  from  the  city  authorities,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  conducting  therein  a  public  hospital  for  the  sick. 
They  also  secured  a  contract  for  the  care  of  the  sick  poor 
■of  the  county.  The  medical  board  was  composed  of  the 
gentlemen  already  named  in  the  first  board,  with  the 
addition  of  Drs.  Daniel  Brainard  and  S.  C.  Blake,  and 
the  exception  of  Drs.  Isham  and  Wagner.  Clinical 
Instruction  was  at  once  given  by  these  gentlemen  for  eight 


45 

months  in  the  year,  chiefly  to  the  students  of  Rush  Col- 
lege, and  continued  till  the  summer  of  1863. 

At  that  date  the  hospital  was  taken  by  the  Government 
authorities: — Chicago  having  been  made  a  military  post 
during  the  War  of  the  Rebellion,  and  Drs.  Ross  and  Am- 
erman  were  placed  in  charge  of  the  hospital  on  contract 
service,  under  the  control  of  the  surgeon  of  the  post,  Dr. 
Brock.  McVickar.  In  the  course  of  a  few  months,  the 
institution  was  changed  into  a  Government  Hospital  for 
the  Eye  and  Ear,  and  placed  in  charge  of  Dr.  Jos.  Hil- 
dreth,  in  whose  care  it  remained  till  the  close  of  the  war- 
It  was  then  named  the  DeMarr  Eye  and  Ear  Hospital. 

Drs.  Ross  and  Amerman  at  once  actively  interested 
themselves  in  the  re-establishment  of  the  hospital.  On 
looking  over  the  field,  they  became  convinced  not  only 
that  the  county  authorities  would  look  with  favor  upon 
the  organization  of  a  county  hospital,  but  also  that,  in 
order  to  compass  the  end,  it  would  be  necessary  for  one 
of-  them  to  become  a  politician.  Dr.  Amerman  accord- 
ingly secured  his  election  as  a  Supervisor,  and,  in  1866, 
the  first  year  of  his  service  as  such,  he  inaugurated  and 
organized  the  Cook  County  Hospital,  for  the  care  of  the 
indigent  poor,  and  for  the  clinical  instruction  of  medical 
students.  During  this  same  year,  Dr.  Amerman  was 
obliged  to  relinquish  his  official  position,  on  account  of 
ill  health,  and  Dr.  J.  P.  Ross  was  at  once  elected  to  fill 
the  vacancy,  as  Supervisor  and  Chairman  of  the  Hospital 
Committee.  The  duties  incident  to  this  position  he  con- 
tinued to  discharge  for  the  two  succeeding  years. 

All  this  was  undertaken  for  the  sole  purpose  of  perma- 
nently establishing  and  perpetuating  the  institution.  It 
is  therefore  evident  that  to  Dr.  J.  P.  Ross  and  his  old 
friend  and  colleague,  Dr.  G.  K.  Amerman,  is  solely  due 
the  honor  of  conducting  to  a  successful  issue,  the  plans 
for  the  development  of  this  great  municipal  charity. 

The  names  of  other  public  institutions  and  charities 
of  Chicago,  in  which  the  profession  of  the  city  is  inter- 


46 

ested,  together  with  the  date  of  the  establishment  of  each, 
are  appended  in  a  note.* 

The  medical  profession  of  Chicago  enters  upon  this 
centennial  year  of  national  existence,  with  the  names 
of  three  hundred  and  sixty-six  physicians  and  surgeons 
enrolled  upon  its  register.  Man}^  of  these  are  both  hon- 
orable and  honored.  Of  the  record  made  in  the  past 
they  need  not  be  ashamed;  in  much  that  has  been  ac- 
complished they  feel  a  just  pride. 

At  the  same  time  the  experiences  of  the  last  forty  years 
have  taught  them  the  sources  of  their  weakness  and 
therefore  of  their  danger.  If  they  have  learned  anything 
it  is  this,  that  to  be  conscious  of  deficiency  and  danger 
is  to  acquire  the  alphabet  of  knowledge — that  to  render 
any  body  of  men  a  living  power  in  a  community,  it  is 
needful  that  each  individual  member  of  it  should  exert 
a  wise,  wholesome  and  weighty  influence  in  the  circle 
where  he  moves.  They  look,  therefore,  rather  to  their 
inherent  capabilities  than  to  any  legislative  or  other 
source,  for  growth  in  reputation  and  authority.  Already 
a  tendency  has  been  developed,  for  the  crystallization  of 
this  power  and  authority,  about  certain  defined  centres. 
That  this  process  is  destined  to  continue  until  its  stand- 
ards are  elevated,  its  code  admired  and  respected,  and  its 

*  Chicago  Medical  Society,  1836  ;  Chicago  Protestant  Orphan  Asylum, 
1849  ;  Mercy  Hospital,  1850  ;  Illinois  State  Medical  Society,  1850  ;  Saint 
Joseph's  Orphan  Asylum,  1819  ;  Chicago  Academy  of  Sciences,  1857  ; 
House  of  the  Good  Shepherd,  1859  ;  Home  for  the  Friendless,  1859  ; 
Illinois  Charitable  Eye  and  Ear  Infirmary,  1858  ;  Chicago  College  of 
Pharmacy,  1859  ;  Chicago  Eelief  and  Aid  Society,  1857  ;  Nursery  and  Half 
Orphan  Asylum,  1860  ;  St.  George's  Benevolent  Society,  1860  ;  St.  Luke's 
Hospital,  1863  ;  Old  People's  Home,  1865  ;  Erring  Woman's  Refuge,  1865  ; 
Chicago  Hospital  for  Women  and  Children,  1865  ;  Alexian  Brothers' 
Hospital,  1860  ;  Central  Dispensary,  1867  ;  St.  Joseph's  Hospital,  1S69 ; 
Washingtonian  Home,  1867  ;  Uhlich  Evangelical  Lutheran  Association, 
1869  ;  State  Microscopical  Society,  1869 ;  Woman's  Hospital  Medical 
College,  1870  ;  Woman's  Hospital  State  of  Illinois,  1871;  Cook  County 
Department  of  Public  Charities,  1872;  Foundlings'  Home,  1871;  Chicago 
Society  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  1S72  ;  Chicago  Medico-Historical 
Society,  1874  ;  Chicago  Medical  Press  Association,  1874 ;  Orphan  Girls' 
Home,  1874. 


47 

accidental  excrescences  removed,  no  one  can  doubt. 
Then  and  only  then  will  it  become  as  fair  and  as  forcible 
in  the  view  of  the  public,  as  in  the  vision  of  its  most 
ardent  representatives. 


he    Chicago    Medical    Journal 

i  AND     EX  AM  I  N  ER.. 


Editor:  WILLIAM  H.  BYFORD,  A.M.,  M.D. 
AssociATi:  Editors:  JAMES  H.  ETHERIDGE,   M.D.  ;  NORMAN   BRIDGE,    M.D. 
.      J  AS.   N  EVENS  HYDE,  A.M..  M.D.  ;  FERD.  C.  HO.TZ,  M.D. 


Published  under  the  auspices  <  f  the.  Chicago  Medical  Press  Association. 
Issued   Twelve  'limes  a  Year. 


TEHMS — Four  Dollars  per  amiinn  in  advance — Postage  Free. 


The  Chicago  Medical  Journal  and  Examiner  is  an  entirely  new  Journal, 

the  union  of  two  journals,  posse.^sfrig  in  a  high  degree  respectability  and  influence, 
which  have  been  published  in  Chicago  for  a  number  of  years,  .viz.  :  ''  The  Chicago 
.  Medical  Journal  ".and  "  The  Chicago  Medical  Examiner." 

About  a  year  since  a  few  medical  gentlemen  conceived  the.  idea  of  starting 
another  Journal,  which  should.have  no  bias  toward  -any  institution"  or  party  ;  one 
in  which  all  members  of. the  profession  could  unite  their  energies  for  the  advance- 
ment of  medicalscienee. 

With  this  view  the  enterprise  which  finally  led. to  the -union  of  the  two  existing 
Journals  was  inaugurated,  together  with  the.  organization  of  ajoint'stock  company, 
to  be  entitled  "  The  Chicago  Medical  Press  Association,"  for  the  purpose  of  pub- 
lishing a  Medical  Journal,  and  the  establishment  of  a  Medical  Library  and  Read- 
ing Rooms  for  the.  benefit  of  the  members  of  the  Association. 

The  organization  being  completed,  the  Journals  were  united  under  the  name  of  tie 
Chicago  Medical  Journal  and  Examiner,  and.  the  Mtdical  Press  Association 
is  responsible  for  its  editorial  management. 

The  Excernt  Department  of  "  The  Medical  Journal  and  Examiner  "will  be 
an  exceedingly -interesting  and  profitable  one. 

Reports  from  the  various  Hospitals  and  Societies  of  Chicago  will  appear  upon 
our  pages  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  them  a  mirror  of  the  practice  of  our  industri- 
ous and  accomplished  corps  of  teachers  and  investigators. 

Correspondence  from  many  of  the  great  cities  of  this  country  and  Europe  will  be 
an  important  feature. 

The  Departments  of  Original  Communications,  Reports  of  Societies,  Summary 
of  Progress,  Translations,  Clinical  Reports  of  Hospitals  and  Private  Practice,  will 
be  leading  features  of  the  Medical  Journal  and  Examiner. 

It  will  be  observed  that  The  Chicago  Medical  Journal  and  Examiner  is  enlarged 
by  the  addition  of  another  form  Of  sixteen  pages,  summing  up,  in  all,  ninety-six 
page's  ;  making, Git  the  end  of  the  year,  a  volume  of  eleven  hundred  and  fifty-two 
pages.  Its  capacity  will  be  still  further  increased  by  reducing  the  type  of  thirty- 
two  pages  to  brevier. 

These  two  changes  will  be  equivalent  to  the  addition  of  about  twenty  pages  such 
as  we  have;  had. 

While  the  publishers  have  thus  liberally  ventured  upon  the  internal  improvement 
of  the  Journal  and  Examiner,  they  intend  to  spare  no  pains  -or  expense  in  the 
mechanical  execution  of  the  work  connected  with  its  publication,  to  make  it 
attractive  in  appearance. 

There  are  many  Medical  Journals  published  in  the  United  States,  all  of  which 
would  be  valuable  to  any  physician.  Take  them  all  if  you  are  able  to  do  so,  but  if 
you  can  afford  only  one,  by  all  means  secure  The  Chicago  Medical  Journal  and 
Examiner. 

W.  B.  KEEN,  COOKE  &  CO., 

Publishers,  113 and  115  Stale  Street,  Chicago. 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIE! 


This  book  is  due  on  the  date  indicated  below,  or  at  the 
expiration  of  a  definite  period  after  the  date  of  borrowing, 
as  provided  by  the  rules  of  the  Library  or  by  special  ar- 
rangement with  the  Librarian  in  charge. 


DATE  BORROWED 

DATE  DUE 

DATE  BORROWED 

DATE  DUE 

I 

C26I1  140IH  100 

